Sure 鈥� Austin鈥檚 weird.
The weirdness, however, extends past , its borderline-unhealthy obsession with breakfast tacos (), the and even the occasional mystery cake decorated with .
The city is full of weird little tics that make Austin Austin. And thanks to a thread on , citizens are sharing the semi-arcane Austin knowledge that separates the natives from the newcomers.
The original poster of confessed he recently learned that Austin thoroughfare Mopac stands for 鈥� the name of the railroad line that shares parallel space with the oft-congested roadway. (And here we thought it stood for Mostly Packed.)
The Redditors shared several more 鈥渨ell-known facts about Austin鈥� you only learn after living here for a while:
East/west streets downtown are named for trees: That鈥檚 why the annual takes place 鈥� where else? 鈥� but Sixth Street. (via Redditor )
North/south streets are named for Texas rivers: And moreover, they conform with Texas geography, from east to west: Sabine, Red River, Neches, Trinity, San Jacinto, Brazos, Colorado, Lavaca, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Nueces, Rio Grande (via Redditor )
Why everything鈥檚 called Waterloo: Waterloo Park, Waterloo Ice House, Waterloo Records: As Redditor pointed out, it was the initial name of our humble settlement, established in 1835.
Here at KUT News, we thought one aspect of the thread deserved special attention: How Austin keeps pronunciations weird.
This is seemingly the first Austin-ism most folks encounter. Redditor noted the correct pronunciation of San Jacinto Street is 鈥淪an Ha-Ceen-Toe.鈥� But you鈥檝e probably heard it called San Jack.
And the mispronunciations don鈥檛 stop there. How about:
- Guadalupe Street (oft pronounced Gwad-A-Loop)
- Manchaca Road (Man-Chack)
And while the above mispronunciations are basically anglicized versions of Spanish words (although Manchaca's mangling disregards all laws of nature), they aren't the only crimes against phonetics. There's also:
- Manor Road (May-ner)
- Koenig Lane (Kay-Nig)
- the Mueller development (correctly pronounced Miller), and
- Burnet Road (鈥淚t鈥檚 Burnet, durn it 鈥� learn it!鈥�). And that 鈥榮 just for starters.
Maybe the biggest misfire is spelled, not spoken: as Redditor points out, Parmer Lane was originally named Palmer Lane. But after enough , it became commonplace and the city changed the name.
There鈥檚 plenty more in the Reddit thread 鈥� like when a street is labeled either east or west, that鈥檚 relative to Congress Avenue, not I-35. But we know there鈥檚 even more weird info out there.
What 鈥溾�� pronunciation, or locals-only factoid did we miss? Educate us by leaving a comment below.
