>>>>>>>'Course, Austin is also the place that has Manchacha Street (Man-chack) - but the hamlet of Manchacha is Man-cha-ka, Guadalupe Street (Guadloop), Burnet Road (burn-it) and the town of Manor (Mayner) down the road.
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>>>>>>And, don't forget Pedernales (Perdenalis) river.
>>>>>
>>>>>This reminds me of two oddities I remember from Virginia: Stanton (Staunton) and Fredgeburg (Fredericksburg).
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>>>>There is a British surname Featherstonhaugh (Fanshaw). There is also a town in England by that name.
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>>>I stuck my foot in my mouth buying a ticket in the London Underground when I said I wanted a fare to Leicester Square, pronouncing it Lie-chest-er. "Generally we pronounce it Lester," the agent said drily.
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>>And Cholmondeley is pronounced chumley. Strange folks those British. On the other hand, you guys south of us pronounce "colonel" as kernel.
>
>>Where's the 'r'?
>
>Just like there are silent letters, there are invisible ones as well. Many of them came from the Boston area where the "R" in words from phrases like "park the car in harvard yard" (pahk the cah in hahvard yahd" was turned silent and added as invisible letters to other areas of the country to use in words like "wa(r)sh"

My family on my moms side arrived in San Francisco in 1849. Most of the family lived in the Mission District, which was mostly Irish and Polish Catholic. When I was a kid I noticed many different accents from people born in San Francisco. My mom was from Bernal Heights, and sounded like she came from Boston. Grandpa was born near 26th and Army, and sounded like he was from New York City. The list goes on.

I did some research on accents from people born in San Francisco, and it turns out that many people from specific parts of the United States settled in specific neighborhoods. From the Gold Rush days until about World War II, people born in the city had specific accents and you could tell the district they were from. Today that is no longer true. I think that just about all the old timers have died or moved.

I pronounce wash as warsh. People have told me that and I did not realize it at the time! :) I was born and raised in Eureka Valley, which was Irish Catholic until recently.