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Question for New York Natives

Centerfield Dec 02 2005 01:16 PM

How do you pronounce Roosevelt Island? Is it: ROSE-velt Island (pronounced like the rest of the world pronounces it) or RUSE-velt Island (rhymes with "bruise")? A guy I know claims it's like the HUGH-ston/HOW-ston Street thingy where "real" New Yorkers can tell who "posers" are. I can't seem to confirm this anywhere...is he right? Is he just an idiot? For what it's worth, this is a guy who constantly says stuff like this...he uses tired jokes like "They have stoplights where you come from?" (I am from upstate).

Edgy DC Dec 02 2005 01:26 PM

i think a real New Yorker would know when a guy is being an asshole. If it helps, a real New Yorker wouldn't have to list what distinguishes himself as real New Yorker. "You don't think I'm authentic? Bite me." Repeat as needed.

soupcan Dec 02 2005 01:26 PM

I'm a native and I've always pronounced it RUSE-evelt . Never really noticed if there was a right or wrong way but now that I think of it, growing up it was always RUSE. Interesting because I pronounce Teddy and FDR 'ROSE' And it was actually a big deal because when they built the tram (mid to late 70's) the place was in the news allatime.

KC Dec 02 2005 01:27 PM

I'm a suburbanite, but I say ROSE. I disagree that it's as much of a baramoter as the Howston pronounciation though. Crap, most real NY's don't know where ROSEvelt Island is. You're more likely to get an answer like, "is that where those trams t'ings go over da rivah go?"

Yancy Street Gang Dec 02 2005 01:32 PM

It's certainly not at the level of HOW-ston Street. (Should real New Yorkers also refer to the Howston Astros?) Another barometer I remember from when I was at NYU was Sixth Avenue. At the time, there weren't any signs that said "Sixth Avenue"; they all said "Avenue of the Americas." Anyone who called it by the longer name was an out-of-towner.

Willets Point Dec 02 2005 01:52 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Dec 02 2005 01:57 PM

My cousins live on Roosevelt Island and they pronounce it the same way that surnames of Presidents Teddy and Franklin are pronounced.

Yancy Street Gang Dec 02 2005 01:54 PM

I've always heard it as ROSE-evelt, just like Theodore and Franklin. (And Eleanor, too!) If I heard someone say "RUSE-evelt" I would probably assume that he was some kind of a bumpkin.

Elster88 Dec 02 2005 01:57 PM

Sounds to me like we've progressed as humans a little bit from the movie Gangs of New York, but not that much. CF you should join the Dead Rabbits if that dude is a member of the Natives.

KC Dec 02 2005 02:01 PM

>>>"They have stoplights where you come from?"<<< Yeah just like the traffic light at yo' mamas bedroom door, assclown. That oughta shut him down for a few minutes.

Elster88 Dec 02 2005 02:05 PM

]"I'm sleeping with your wife." -George Costanza

ScarletKnight41 Dec 02 2005 02:08 PM

I grew up on Long Island, and ROSE-avelt sounds right to me. I can't even make myself say RUSE-avelt for comparison's sake.

MFS62 Dec 02 2005 02:09 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Another barometer I remember from when I was at NYU was Sixth Avenue. At the time, there weren't any signs that said "Sixth Avenue"; they all said "Avenue of the Americas." Anyone who called it by the longer name was an out-of-towner. The problem is, many of the New Tork cab drivers came to this country after the name was changed from 6th Avenue. If you hop in their cab and ask to be taken to an address on that avenue, they're not sure where you want to go. Some will ask "Brooklyn?" Later

ScarletKnight41 Dec 02 2005 02:11 PM

Telling a cabbie that you're going to 34th Street or 6th Avenue is a dead giveaway that you're a tourist. It's 34th and 6th to the natives.

Frayed Knot Dec 02 2005 02:18 PM

Well wasn't the island named after the president (one or the other or both - they were distant cousins)?? I always assumed it was, meaning that you'd pronounce the island the same way you pronounced the name of those dead Prez's - which some people did pronounce as 'Rooz', something I just wrote off as a local quirk like a lot of NYC pronounciations more than a correct/incorrect thing. There was an old joke that if 1930's pitcher Waite Hoyt - who pitched for the Yanx, Giants & Brooklyn - ever got injured that a real NYC newspaper would take the stereotyped "dialect" (pronouncing oil like "earl" - but saying that you "hoit" your toe) and turn it into a headline that would read something along the lines of: 'HURT HOYT' Houston/Houston is a bit different since I'm assuming that HOWston street wasn't named after Sam Houston while the Texas city certainly was.

MFS62 Dec 02 2005 02:30 PM

Y'know what's funny? In college, I took both History of New York City and History of New York State (where I met my wife) and the subject of how to pronounce the name of that island never came up. I pronounce it the same as the names of Teddy and FDR. But I don't think it was named after either of them. The Roosevelt family was prominent in New York way before either of them became President. Like The Bronx (named after a Dutch family) that owned the land. Later

SwitchHitter Dec 02 2005 02:52 PM

Relating to Hurt Hoyt, down here, we have Kuykendahl Rd. It's pronounced "KIRK en dahl".

Willets Point Dec 02 2005 02:57 PM

Roosevelt Island was named for FDR in 1973. The recent vintage of the name is another argument against the "Real New Yorkers" thing as it's not like there have been generations of New Yorkers calling it RUSE-velt since until 32 years ago it was known by other names (most recently Welfare Island).

sharpie Dec 02 2005 03:09 PM

Kuykendahl is, I believe, always pronounced KIRK-EN-DAHL (I used to have a roommate with that name).

Edgy DC Dec 02 2005 03:26 PM

It's a Dutch and German thing, extracting R sounds from vowel combinations, which every New Yorker knows from the Goethels Bridge. Of course you should pronounce it like the person the island was named for. Of course, it's not like the Duke of York likes his name pronounced "Yawk."

seawolf17 Dec 02 2005 03:32 PM

How about Van Wick vs Van Wyke? Or Kosciusko? (Didn't we have this thread on the old boards?)

metirish Dec 02 2005 03:36 PM

One of the things that amazed me when I first came here from Tipperary was way New Yorkers sounded from borough to borough, especially New Yorkers from Brooklyn, it could have been a different country.

Rockin' Doc Dec 03 2005 11:49 AM

Ya'll talk funny if you ask me. Of course, living in the south the majority of my adult life, I'm not in a position to offer diction lessons. I love Brooklyn accents. They crack me up. Of course, I realize if you dropped myself and a few of my buddies in Broklyn they'd think we sounded pretty funny too. It's all what you're accustomed to hearing on a regular basis.