If you’re new to Chattanooga, chances are pretty good there are a few words in the local vernacular that you’ve been mispronouncing. In honor of Chatter’s “Homegrown Issue,” I, a native Chattanoogan, decided to help clear up some of those. I enlisted the help of other locals through an informal poll just to be sure. Though I’ll bet at least a few local readers will argue that we’re wrong, too.
The most prominently mispronounced is the name of our fair city itself, which is pronounced cha-duh-NOO-guh, not chat-NOO-guh or cha-TUH-noo-guh. Other Native American-derived names that tend to trip people up are Chickamauga (chick-a-MOG-uh) and Ooltewah (OO-te-wah, with a silent L, not ool-TAY-wah, as Ronald Reagan called it when visiting Chattanooga back in 1987).
Emily CrismanOoltewah restaurant Puleo’s Grille is pronounced puh-LAY-o’s, not POO-lee-o or, as is often strangely said, PWAY-low’s, poo-AY-los or PWAY-blows (it’s an Italian restaurant, y’all). On the subject of “y’all,” I know we’re talking about pronunciation here, but this is the way you write “y’all,” not “ya’ll.”
Another commonly mispronounced restaurant is Zarzour’s (ZAR-zoor’s), a local institution since 1918. Koch’s Bakery, where you’ll find some of the most delicious doughnut and thumbprint cookies in town, is pronounced “kux” (rhymes with “ducks”). This one you can’t argue, as it’s how the original owners pronounced their name, according to the bakery’s website. Pizzeria Cortile in Red Bank is pronounced core-TEE-lay. And, while not a mispronunciation but rather a flatout mistake, the restaurant inside the Choo Choo building is the Frothy Monkey, not the Frosty Monkey. I am here to help, after all.
The P.R. Olgiati (ole-JOT-ee) Bridge, is often mistakenly referred to as the Ol’ Johnny Bridge, or, by those perhaps overcorrecting their initial mistake, as the ol-gee-OT-ee. The bridge is named after Peter Rudolph “Rudy” Olgiati, four-term mayor of Chattanooga from 1951-1963. Olgiati hailed from Gruetli, now part of also often-mispronounced Gruetli-Laager (GROOT-lee LOGG-er), a town in Grundy County, Tennessee. Beersheba Springs, also in Grundy County, is BURSH-uh-ba, rather than BEER-SHEE-ba.