BIG COUNTRY, Texas (BigCountryHomepage.com) – In any city you visit, there’s going to be a street name or neighborhood, maybe, that everyone would pronounce phonetically but the locals might pronounce it a totally different way. It’s no different in Abilene and the surrounding areas. If you’re new here and say “Antilley Road” with emphasis on the I, odds are your nearest local will correct you.

Here are some of the most commonly mispronounced street names in Abilene. But don’t ask why they’re pronounced the ways they are – nobody seems to know!

Antilley Road is phonetically an-tilly, but locally pronounced as ant-lee.

Treadaway Boulevard, phonetically, is tred-away and we call it tred-way here.

With French roots, Bois D’Arc Street should be pronounced bwah-dahk. But for some reason, it’s colloquially known to be said like bow dark. Its direct translation is wooden bow.

Judge Ely Boulevard is phonetically Judge E-lie. But because it’s named for the person, Judge Walter R. Ely, it’s pronounced E-lee.

A quick history:

Ely (1879-1978), according to the Texas State Historical Association, moved with his family to Callahan County as a teenager in 1895, but he was born in Kentucky. In any matter, he’s said to have later gone on to become a county judge and then moved to the Abilene area. After while, he held a private practice law firm in Abilene and served as chairman of the Taylor County gasoline and tire rationing board. He passed away just two months before his 100th birthday, and was buried in Elmwood Memorial Park in Abilene. What we know now as Judge Ely Boulevard was Stadium Way up until 1974.

Barrow Street, which turns into Mocking Bird Lane at South 7th Street, has some controversy over its pronunciation. Some call it burr-oh, but it is locally elocuted as bear-oh.

Abilene isn’t the only place around with some funky pronunciations, though. Take a look at the delivery of these Big Country towns’ names:

Colorado City isn’t pronounced like the state here, rather we call it call-ur-ay-doh.

No, Moran isn’t an insult. It’s said like murr-ann.

Bronte, which you’d think would be pronounced Brawn-tay, is actually and simply Brawnt.

With Spanish roots, the City of De Leon should be pronounced day leon but we call it dee leon. De Leon translates to “of lion.”

Tuxedo, which is actually an unincorporated community in Jones County, is not pronounced like the men’s formal wear. Instead, for some reason, it’s tux-uh-doh.

Lastly, Tolar. The emphasis here isn’t on the A. We say it tow-lurr, kind of like Divorce Court’s Judge Lynn Toler.

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