Should the Mardi Gra city be pronounced "New Ore Lense" or "New Ore Leens"?

Daaanieeel

New Orleans is usually pronounced by locals as "noo-AW-lyenz", "noo-AW-linz", "noo-OR-linz", or "noo-OR-lyenz". http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Orleans /nju? ??rli?nz/ or /?nju? ?r?li?nz/, locally /nu? ??rl?nz/ or /?n?rl?nz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuv?l??le?? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans Jan 05 12, 11:18 PM

ferfer72

Actually, the locals choose neither. They say "Nawlins". http://www.experienceneworleans.com/glossary.html www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=N'awlins Also--It's "Mardi Gras". There's an "s" on the end. Jan 06 12, 11:06 AM

Spaudrey

I have heard pronounced with 4 syllables (Nu OR-lee-unz) and sometimes almost ONE syllable (NAWLNS). That comes from a backwoods creole accent there, though. I agree with ferfer, two syllables is the 'native' way to pronounce it. Jan 06 12, 12:28 PM

tadpoles_uk

Having lived there for over 15 years, I can tell you that there are several local fully-accepted pronunciations depending on what area the speaker came from. For example, people from St. Bernard Parish tend to pronounce it more like "Nwalins" (and that's two syllables.) Jan 06 12, 12:41 PM