You need to know this, this video request came through from Bertha, a student in my online school.

Her native language is Spanish and she lives in Alabama.

She asked me to make a video that goes over the pronunciation of all of the 50 states in the US

and their capitals.

Thank You, Bertha, for the question!

We'll be going through alphabetically

and we'll be talking about anything interesting that happens with pronunciation, like a flap T or a silent letter.

We'll talk a lot about stress.

I'll be going over the standard pronunciation.

Keep in mind, pronunciations can vary by region.

We'll start with Alabama. The capital of Alabama is Montgomery.

Alabama, we have four letters A.

Two of them are the AH vowel and two are the schwa.

Al-a-bam-a.

Most stress on the third syllable.

Alabama.

The capital is Montgomery.

You may hear this as four syllables.

Montgom-e-ry. Montgomery.

But it's more common to pronounce it: Mont-gom-ery, just three syllables.

Notice, I'm making a stop T.

Montgomery. Mont– Mont– Mont– Montgomery.

Say that with me. Alabama. Alabama.

Montgomery. Montgomery.

Alaska, and the capital Juneau.

Alaska, three A's, two are a schwa, and one is the AH as in Bat vowel.

That's the middle syllable. The stressed syllable, the beginning syllable, the schwa, the ending syllable,

the schwa.

Alaska. Alaska.

The capital is Juneau.

First syllable stress.

Ju— Juneau, and second syllable, unstressed with the OH as in No diphthong.

Juneau.

Say that with me. Alaska. Alaska. Juneau. Juneau.

Arizona and the capital, Phoenix.

Arizona, four syllable word with stress on the third syllable that has the OH as in No diphthong,

and make sure you have jaw drop and then lip rounding to get both parts of that diphthong: Ohh.

Arizo— Arizona.

Arizona. And we do end in the schwa. Arizona.

The capital is Phoenix, two-syllable word, first-syllable stress.

Phoenix. Phoenix.

Arkansas and Little Rock. Arkansas, this one is crazy because it looks like R, Kansas.

Kansas is also a state name, but it's not pronounced that way at all. It's Arkansas, first syllable stress: Ar-kan-sas.

And then the last syllable has no S sound at the end.

I think of this as the AW as in Law vowel.

Arkansas.

Though I have seen it written in IPA with the AH as in Father vowel, that doesn't matter so much.

Just know that it is unstressed.

Arkansas. Arkansas.

The capital of Arkansas is Little Rock.

Little has a flap T, and then the schwa L, that can be tricky. Little, little, little. Little Rock.

Rock also stressed along with the first syllable, lih— Little Rock. Little Rock. Say these with me.

Arkansas. Arkansas.

Little Rock. Little Rock.

California, Sacramento.

California, a four syllable word with stress on the third syllable, secondary stress on the first syllable.

Cal-i-forn-ia.

You can think of this second syllable as being either the schwa, or the IH vowel.

Just make sure it has a very unstressed feel.

Cal-ih-ih-ih-forn-ia.

Now, the stressed syllable would be written with the AW as in law vowel.

When that is followed by R in the same syllable, it is definitely more closed, it's not ah but it's aw, aw, aw,

for, for, fornia.

California.

Make sure you make this a Dark L.

The L in California comes at the end of a syllable, not the beginning, so we don't want: Cal, cal,

right from AH into a light L, but we want: Cal, Cal, uhl, uhl, that uhl sound is the dark sound of a Dark L.

An L is a dark L when it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable, like it does here.

Cal, uhl, uhl, don't leave that out.

Cal-- Cal-- California.

The capital, Sacramento, also has four syllables, also has third syllable stress.

It has the same stress pattern.

Sacramento.

Now, the T here can be a true T like I've just done it, to- to- or it can be dropped, Sacramento, Sacramento.

Sometimes, we drop the T when it comes after an N, when it doesn't start a stressed

syllable. Sacramento, or Sacramento. Say these with me. California. California. Sacramento. Sacramento.

Colorado. Denver.

Colorado, just like California, and Sacramento.

It has four syllables with the third syllable stressed.

Here, the L is a light L, it comes at the beginning of the syllable, so you don't have to worry about the dark sound.

Co-lo-ra-do.

Colorado. Colorado.

The capital is Denver, two-syllable word with first syllable stress

Denver. Denver.

Say these with me. Colorado. Colorado. Denver. Denver.

Connecticut, Hartford.

Connecticut, four syllable word, this time, stress is on the second syllable.

Co-nnec-ticut.

Notice the T is a flap T, the first T,

that's because the T comes between two vowel sounds, you're thinking: wait a second, it comes after the letter C.

Well, that letter C is actually silent in this state name.

So when we look at the sounds, the T comes between two vowel sounds, that's a flap T.

Co-nnec-riririri. Connecticut.

The final T will likely be a Stop T.

It might be a flap T if it's linking into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong.

But in general, this will be a Stop T.

Connecticut. Connecticut.

The capital of Connecticut is Hartford.

This is tricky, it has two R's, Hart— with a stop T, Hart— ford, ford.

And don't try to put a vowel here in the second syllable, it has the schwa followed by R,

those just blend together into one R sound.

Fff--rrr--dd— Ford— Ford— Ford— Hartford.

Hartford. Say those with me. Connecticut. Connecticut. Hartford. Hartford.

Delaware. Dover.

Delaware, three syllable word with first syllable stress.

It has the EH as in Bed vowel, and a Dark L.

Del— del— dela— Delaware.

Ware—ware— ware—

Unstressed syllable with the EH vowel.

Ware— weh eh eh— ware— ware— Delaware.

Delaware.

The capital of Delaware is Dover.

Two syllable word, first syllable stress.

That syllable has the OH diphthong. Make sure you have jaw drop, then lip rounding.

Doh— Doh— Dover.

Dover. Say those with me. Delaware. Delaware. Dover. Dover.

Florida.

This is my home state. I was born here and I lived here for the first 18 years of my life.

I pronounce this word with two syllables. Florida.

That's the same pronunciation most of the people I know use, however, you will hear some native speakers

put in a really light IH vowel in the middle, making it three syllables.

Florida. Flor-ih-da. Or Florida.

Florida.

Two-syllable word with first syllable stress.

Flor-da, Flor-da, just the schwa sound in the second syllable, da-da-da no bigger vowel than that.

The vowel in the stressed syllable is the AW as in Law vowel, just like in Califo-oh-ornia.

California.

When the AW vowel is followed by R in a syllable, that is stressed, the AW vowel will change,

it will be more closed.

It won't be: aw, but: oh, oh.

Or-- flor-- Florida, or as some people might say it with three syllables: Florida, Flor-i-da, ih-da, ih-da, Florida.

The capital of Florida is Tallahassee.

Four-syllable word, with stress on the third syllable.

We do have a dark L in the first syllable.

Tal-- tall-- uhl uhl-- Tala-- Tallahassee. Tallahassee. Say these with me. Florida. Florida. Tallahassee. Tallahassee.

Georgia and the capital, Atlanta. Georgia, two syllable word with first syllable stress.

Just like Florida, it has the AW vowel followed by R.

It is more closed, it's not: AW it's: uhr, uhr. Georgia. So more lip rounding, tongue a little further back.

Geor— Georgia, and a schwa in the second syllable.

Georgia.

The capital of Georgia is Atlanta.

The pronunciation of this capital is interesting.

It's a three syllable word with stress on the middle syllable.

It has two T's, but you might hear it pronounced with no T's at all. Atlanta. Atlanta.

I would pronounce it with a Stop T in the first syllable because it's followed by another consonant.

At— At— Atlanta. Atlanta.

The second T can be dropped because it's followed by an N. Atlanta. Or you can make it a light true T. Atlanta.

Atlanta. It ends in a schwa. I will say I have friends and family who live in this city,

and none of them pronounce the second T.

They all leave it out. Atlanta, is how they say it.

Say that with me. Georgia. Georgia. Atlanta. Or Atlanta.

Hawaii. Honolulu. Hawaii.

Now, I'm doing a very American English pronunciation of this.

People who actually speak Hawaiian would probably be giving it a different pronunciation.

But in general, the general population of America would pronounce this as Hawaii.

So we have stress on the second syllable, it's a three-syllable word, a schwa in the first syllable.

Huh, huh, huh. Ha-wa-ii. AI diphthong then IH vowel.

Hawaii. Hawaii.

The capital of Hawaii is Honolulu.

Four syllable word, stress on the third syllable.

Honolulu. Honolulu.

We have a schwa in the second syllable, and the OO vowel, the same exact sounds in the last two syllables.

First, it's stressed Lu--, then it's unstressed: Lu—.

Lu— Lu— Honolulu.

Say these with me. Hawaii. Hawaii. Honolulu. Honolulu.

Idaho. Boise.

Idaho. Three-syllable word with first syllable stress.

That's the AI diphthong: I-da, then we have the schwa in the second syllable,