Locals have their own ways of pronouncing Concord names which are quite specific and distinguish them easily from visitors or new transplants. With this little guide, you can make yourself better understood to locals (and vice versa). I had to learn all these -- sometimes under embarrassing circumstances -- when I moved here, and perhaps you'll be saved from some of the same.

Let's start with the name of the town: Concord. This is commonly mispronounced as "CON-cord," and in fact, many other towns named the same say it this way. Here, we say "CON-kurd," pronouncing it the same way one says "I came, I saw, I conquered."

The Thoreau's were French Canadians who probably made the pronounciation of their names more English-sounding when they came to this area. There are several written records where Concord people doing business with or mentioning one of the Thoreaus wrote the name phonetically, and this is a good indication of exactly how they heard it said. If this is the way the Thoreau family itself pronounced their name, who are we to do otherwise?

Moving on to another of the famed 19th century families, we have another pronounciation pitfall waiting to ensnare us: Alcott. "Foreigners" pronounce it as "AL-cot," "All-COT" and "OL-cut" (the last being the "original" family name). While there are many branches of this tribe and each may pronounce (and even spell) it their own way, the Concord Alcott is said locally "ALL-cut."

Another native American name may seem tough to pronouce: Punkatasset (as in Punkatasset Woods or Punkatasset Hill). It may also be found spelled "Ponkatasset." But pronounciation is fairly straight forward, however: pun-ka-TAS-et.

And one last one, which seems like it should be no problem but has an unexpected pronounciation: Keyes. There SHOULD be no other way to say this than "keez," like "car keys." But surprise! It is pronounced to rhyme with "eyes."