Any Virginians out there? Please tell me if someone pronounces

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Monticello... Monti - CELL O - surely SOMEONE says it this way or where would
I have gotten it from???

But, we were with these snooty people at dinner and after I said
Monti-CELL O, they said Monti-CHELLO like a zillion times to rub it in...

[onehandle]

1. A close friend grew up in the area.

They pronounce the non-existent H.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. that sucks

[A Little Weird]

3. Not a Virginian

But Kentucky has a town spelled the same way and it is pronounced Monti-Cell-O.

[Recursion]

4. "chellow" like the instrument

Though I worked at their chief competitor, Mt. Vernon, so maybe we were pronouncing it wrong to spite them. I don't know...

[mnhtnbb]

5. I have always heard it pronounced as the instrument (cello)

and, since it probably was taken from the Italian, that would be the correct pronunciation.

Interesting info about the name here: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/origin-name-monticello

[Codeine]

6. One of the problems with being an early reader

is not properly pronouncing words you've first encountered in written form. You probably read it way before hearing it spoken and it cemented itself in your mind that way. After all, there's no logical reason to assume it is pronounced "chellow" if you don't know it's from an Italian source, which a kid isn't likely to realize.

For years i mispronounced "annihilate" (uh-nil-hee-ate, if you must know) because I didn't hear it spoken, just read it. And after a while even when I DID hear it spoken I don't think I realized it was that word. Very embarrassing, especially considering my pronunciation doesn't even scan properly.

My kid recently did that with the female protagonist of Harry Potter; Her-mee-on Granger. Poor kid.

[Iggo]

9. I used to pronounce "chaos" with a ch- like in church and the -aos like in Laos.

And that was because as a small child (and early reader) in the 60s I pronounced Laos as Lay-oss and was roundly ridiculed. I saw the word Chaos and figured I wouldn't make that mistake again. .

And then I was roundly ridiculed.

But how was I supposed to know? Again, being children of the 60s, every kid my age who watched Get Smart knew that chaos was spelled KAOS.

Poor kid and early reader, me.

[OriginalGeek]

17. My little brother once called me a VAG-in-a

with a hard g. He was probably 9 or 10 so I would have been 14 or 15

He got madder because I laughed so much. I never did figure out where he had read it though.

[malthaussen]

7. Maybe it's like Talliaferro...

... lots of different ways to pronounce that.

-- Mal

[lastlib]

14. Only one way to pronounce it--

(Wif yore hand over yore mouf......)

[El Supremo]

16. "Toliver"

I can't believe someone mentioned that name.

I had a relative from Texas and that's how he pronounced it.

[Yonnie3]

8. I live in the shadow of Monticello (well almost that near)

I've always said it with the CH sound. There are more and more folks in the area who say it with the soft c. Typically they are the newer people. They came to go to UVA or to work here. I understand it either way and wouldn't bother even mentioning it.

[Bucky]

10. This is how Thomas Jefferson pronounced it

https://www.monticello.org/site/blog-and-community/posts/other-monticellos

As you no doubt gleaned from the above incident, “MontiCHELLo” is considered the correct pronunciation for Thomas Jefferson’s home. But the truth is that pretty much everyone I meet pronounces it “MontiSELLo.” We have sound historical evidence that Jefferson and his family most likely gave their home its original Italian pronunciation, but out there in the rest of the country, this pronunciation seems to be rare indeed.

(and at that link, we read...)

We do not have anything in Jefferson's writing that tells us how he pronounced the word, but we have other written records that indicate the Italian pronunciation. For example, in 1781 George Gilmer wrote to Jefferson, "I long to behold the period when you may with propriety retreat to Montchello..."

In 1789, Baron Geismar wrote to Jefferson, "Que je Vous envie Votre Retour à MontiChello, Sejour paisible et agreable que j'y ai passé!"

In 1805, Meriwether Lewis wrote to Jefferson from Fort Mandan, “You may therefore expect me to meet you at Montachello in September 1806.”

And in 1843, James Adams Kasson, a newcomer to Albemarle County who became acquainted with a member of the Jefferson family, wrote: "I am working my way around...into most of the families of this circle which contains, besides those I have before mentioned, a gentleman closely related to Jefferson and brought up at Monticello (President J.'s seat), the 'c' pronounced like 'ch' in chair -- 'Montichello.'

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. Thanks so much for digging this info up! you rock !

[MrScorpio]

11. Monty Jello...

[bikebloke]

12. Taught in school here in Virginia...

(At least when I was in grade school.)

Monti-CHello. From the Italian.

[Blue_Tires]

15. I'll be honest... I've used both interchangably...

Only when I took a high school field trip did I finally start calling it "CHELLO", since my teacher kept correcting us...

Although for what it's worth, my father (born and raised in Charlottesville) and his side of the family have mostly said "SELL-O"