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Redawg660

Many streets in Portland are named after early figures in Portlands history. It is possible to do a search. I grew up near SE 58 and Liebe. I always heard it pronounced Leebee.


Wooliverse

That sounds pretty definitive! Thanks!


amtrak90

Many streets are also mispronunciations that we’ve all grown accustomed too funny enough. Glisan should be Glissen


Ok_World_135

Couch should be cooch. I'm never calling it cooch.


amtrak90

I meant that the Glisan family didn't even pronounce their name that way, they pronounced it Glissen. "Cooch" is the proper pronunciation though, you'd be wrong by saying "Couch"


MountScottRumpot

Same


koc77

My family has owned a house on SE Live since the early 80's and I concur.


LukeBabbitt

“Cooch”


trlambert1

I grew up off 84th & Liebe. Lee-bee.


Wooliverse

Thanks for the confirmation!


ImpeachedPeach

The fellow is wrong, it's lee-buh. Like Liebestraum (love dream). It's the German word for Love.


Fair_Leadership76

Going around insisting on the original pronunciation for words is a sure way to create unnecessary friction in the world. This isn’t helpful to the OP. They’re asking how it’s pronounced *here* and it’s not pronounced here as it is in the rest of the world.


shroomsaregoooood

Lol this drives me crazy with Nevada particularly. It's Ne-vad-duh not ne-vah-duh


Fair_Leadership76

I’m English. If you wanna get into a pronunciation peeves thing, may I direct you toward the towns of Worcester, Leicester and Loughborough?


AuNanoMan

Is the last one “lew-boro?” Or maybe “loff-boro?” Weird ones.


Fair_Leadership76

Luff-bruh Obviously 🙄


AuNanoMan

Oh man wtf?


Fair_Leadership76

🤷🏼‍♀️ I put it down to over 1000 years of pronouncing it. You get tired.


misanthpope

That doesn't mean it's pronounced that way as a street in Portland, even if that is the pronunciation in German


ImpeachedPeach

Considering that it's clearly named that way because of the German word, you would be incorrect.


misanthpope

If you say so.  How do you think New Mexico is pronounced? The way it sounds in spanish?


StreetwalkinCheetah

Speaking of FoPo - I heard three or four different pronunciations of Flavel last week. I'd always gone with "fluh-vell" but heard everything from a long A, a nasally short A, to an ending in -ull. Anyone?


shananiganz

Everyone I know says “Fluh-vell”, my GPS says “Fl-AAH-vell”


StreetwalkinCheetah

Does your GPS also say "ess-stack-uh-duh"? I feel like GPS pronunciations might deserve their own coffee table book or maybe a podcast is more appropriate.


ioverated

Mine used to say suh-dee-der hills instead of cedar hills. Never made sense to me.


Whatsupwithmynoodles

Lololol this is cracking me up!


Interesting_Tea_6734

Lake OZ-wee-go. Which my boomer now insists must be the correct pronunciation because Siri never errs.


moomooraincloud

You have your own boomer?


whatwhathushhushnow

Mine always said Cascade Station as Cas-cuh-duh station, always made me laugh.


Fair_Leadership76

Sometimes I have the English lady on Google maps do my directions, purely for the entertainment value.


shrug_addict

I hate how streets named after recent figures have to say the full damn name in GPS, like "Martin Luther King Junior Blvd" or "Cesar E. Chavez Avenue". Like say MLK like EVERYONE else, ever. It almost seems more disrespectful in a way, everyone knows who King or Chavez or Parks is, just use that name in everyday life


StreetwalkinCheetah

Oh - mine says Cesar Chavez like "Cesarey Chavez Avenue" it makes me LOL when did people start adding his middle initial? I don't recall that when he was alive. And yeah MLK is called MLK in every single city in America.


AlveolarFricatives

When I first moved to PDX my GPS said “Cesar East Chavez,” which cracked me up


snuggleswithdemons

Mine says "Cesar Estrada Chavez Boulevard" - literally his full effin name.


tophatpainter

Will - immit


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MoreRopePlease

Haha...


6th_Quadrant

Fra-JILL-lay


blinkandmisslife

Must be from France.


cjasonac

Siri used to pronounce Couch like the thing you sit on. It finally started saying it correctly a few years ago.


hkohne

Except it is supposed to be pronounced like that, as that's how that family pronounced it


cjasonac

Wait. What? So it IS supposed to be pronounced like the furniture and not “cooch?”


itsyagirlblondie

No, you were correct, it’s pronounced “cooch” like slang for a vagina.


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itsyagirlblondie

Also as a born and raised PDX native, your mother is correct on all fronts.


ProgressRelevant9312

Born and raised in SE PDX and it’s always been FLAY-vell my entire 35+ years too


madommouselfefe

My mom many moons ago was a receptionist at a doctors office in Portland. She got to meet one of the children of Dr. Rodney Glisan. my mom pronounced their last name, in the typical Glee-son way and was promptly told that NO it is NOT Glee-Son… it is pronounced Gliss-San.    They then when off into a long tirade about how nobody knows HOW to actually pronounce the name. Let alone who the street is named after. Oh and FYI Couch st also named after this persons family because Glisan married Couch’s  daughter.


OccamsBallRazor

I say fla-VELL out loud but “flay-vel flayve” in my head.


misanthpope

Now I guess I'll be doing that too


ProgressRelevant9312

I will always call it this now


PortlandPetey

I grew up near Flavel, and have always heard and said “Flay-Vell”


blinkandmisslife

Falafel


Ex-zaviera

with the accent on the '-vell'.


itsyagirlblondie

Portland born and raised and almost 30. It’s Flay-Vell like the chef Bobby Flay lol


Moist-Consequence

I grew up in SE and always heard it said Flay-vell


weedhuffer

Anyone want to help me out with Weidler? Weed-ler or wide-ler or?


hkohne

The second one. Wide-ler


RadishCultivator

I’m stuck on this one, too!


ldr97266

LEE-beh. German for love.


Free_Solid9833

That's how it should be pronounced, but this is portland.


AcadianCascadian

Yep! Dr. Rodney Glisan pronounced his name GLISS-en, but we insist on GLEE-son.


E-Squid

Wasn't it because Jackie Gleason was popular at the time, and the pronunciation of his time influenced what came to be the accepted pronunciation?


wentthererecently

My grandma lived in Portland as a kid, in the 1920s, moved to Idaho, and came back to Portland in 1940. She said that the pronunciation of Glisan was like "glisten" when she was a kid, and had changed to the current pronunciation when she came back. She also said this was before Jackie Gleason was famous.


ldr97266

I don't think that's specifically a Portland thing. In USA few people speak a second language, so unfamiliar spellings (especially foreign words) will trip them up.


disappointer

I've always pronounced it the German way, personally. Only once in the last \~10 years have I heard anyone insist that it was "Lee-bee", but that was just a couple of months ago. So, I have no idea.


SuperTeenyTinyDancer

Portland had heavy German population up until recently. Lee-beh would have been the original pronunciation.


hikensurf

you mean LEE-buh, but na the street is pronounced LEE-bee


OriginalManner0

Lee-bee


PaulbunyanIND

Welcome, I;ve lived here quite a while but have no idea


mcmanninc

I always heard LIE-bee. Lived here all my life, but mostly in Northeast, so what do I know?


leonardthedog

Is Liebe in Foster-Powell? I always thought of 82nd as the eastern neighborhood line but I'm not a long-time Portlander.


ProgressRelevant9312

I grew up off Foster (between Foster and Holgate) and it’s always been pronounced Lee-bee in our area


Moist-Consequence

I’ve always heard it said lie-bee, like it’s spelled, but idk


ira_finn

LIEBE STRASSE UND SONST NICHTS!


Former-Wish-8228

Has there been consensus on this yet? I’ve only lived here for 35 years…so still learning these skills.


Wooliverse

Based on several people who say they grew up near the street, I’m going with Lee-bee until I talk to an actual neighbor and hear different!


FreshyFresh

I would say it just like the German word. LEE-buh


RogersKustoms

Lee-bee - Liebie Cooch- Couch Glis-sen - not Gleason (family confirms this) Flah-vell - Flavel Will-aaaa-met - Willamette Mc-law-flin - McLoughlin