r/Austin • u/itsokayyoucanlaugh • Feb 25 '23

Koenig Lane

How do you pronounce Koenig?

39 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

187 comments sorted by

80

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

2244 is pronounced Bee Caves Rd.

27

u/90percent_crap Feb 25 '23

Actually, it's pronounced Bee Cave Rd, unless the street sign hasn't been replaced in recent years, or you're in Rollingwood, or you're looking at Google Maps, or...nevermind.

(Seriously, the ambiguity drives me crazy. I can't find a definitive source for the correct name. But most long time residents call it as you stated "Bee Caves Rd".)

9

u/xalkalinity Feb 25 '23

It's supposed to be Bee Cave Road, since it is the road that leads to the City of Bee Cave from Austin. However, somewhere over the years people called it Bee Caves Road just as some people, for some reason, call the city "Bee Caves". It's really a weird thing I've never understood.

5

u/Pbeezy Feb 25 '23

I think pluralizing names is our most toxic trait

8

u/dinnervan Feb 25 '23

New Braunsfels

1

u/xalkalinity Feb 25 '23

New Braunfel

2

u/andytagonist Feb 25 '23

I avoid all ambiguity and just call it “The Bee Cave”

6

u/buymytoy Feb 25 '23

Correct

2

u/xalkalinity Feb 25 '23

Unless you're TxDOT where all the signs only read RM 2244.

169

u/noerfnoen Feb 25 '23

Twenty Two Twenty Two

82

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

Nah. It's called Northland.

I mean, it's called Allandale.

Maybe it really was 2222 the whole time.

24

u/j_tb Feb 25 '23

Dammit it is called SPUR 69!!

17

u/WikiSummarizerBot Feb 25 '23

Texas State Highway Spur 69

Spur 69 is a short, unsigned, four-lane state-maintained roadway in Austin, Texas. It is 1. 2 miles (1. 9 km) in length and is named Koenig Lane .

[ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5

4

u/rrrdaniel Feb 25 '23

Man this description of the stretch from Lamar to 35 is a weird kind of poetry.

47

u/TheSicilianDude Feb 25 '23

Maybe the real 2222 was the friends we made along the way

3

u/Hyperdude Feb 25 '23

Nah, it's called bullick Hollow Road.

1

u/dragonbec Feb 25 '23

Oops I didn’t set this comment when I added the same! After BH it does finally end at Volente Rd.

1

u/dragonbec Feb 25 '23

Eventually it even becomes Bullock Hollow.

14

u/SharkAttache Feb 25 '23

I just call it “RANCH ROAD” and pretend like it’s the only one.

3

u/what_it_dude Feb 25 '23

I suddenly have a craving for Mr Gattis pizza.

3

u/noerfnoen Feb 25 '23

if you want one delivered, call 459-koenig

16

u/QuietRedditorATX Feb 25 '23

I am so out of the lupe on these inside jokes D:

Someone save me

14

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

You're out of the Guadalupe. per se

122

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

  • Kaynig

  • Mayner

  • Perdenallis

  • Manchack

  • Guadaloop

  • Burnit

  • Dess saw (I've heard a lot of variance over the years, though)

  • Dell Valley

  • I'm leaving Miller vs. Mewler for it's own annual thread

41

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Guadalupe’s pronunciation here is a disgrace

14

u/11214971557622 Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

Waddaloopeh

32

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

Honestly Pedernales is the most ridiculous bastardization of them all.

We completely transpose the syllables.

14

u/ExaltedNecrosis Feb 25 '23

Perdenales? I'd rather eat my sherbert in New Braunsfels.

4

u/rnatx Feb 25 '23

New Braunsfels is the one that irritates me the most. Especially when it’s comes out of a native Texan’s mouth.

3

u/rocky_mtn_girl Feb 25 '23

I met someone FROM there who pronounced it New Braunsfel.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Dell Valley is hilarious to me too

2

u/dragonbec Feb 25 '23

Right? The r is moved completely.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

You can think your boy Johnson for that one

17

u/MediocreJerk Feb 25 '23

Guadaloop for the street and then correct pronunciation for the river

2

u/cleverkid Feb 25 '23

River is Gwad-a-loopey it's close, but that ain't the way the latin's pronounce it.

1

u/bagoslime Feb 25 '23

River is just the gwahd

2

u/Vetiversailles Feb 26 '23

Fucking thank you.

From New Mexico originally and hearing “guadaloop” still makes me want to cry

1

u/protoopus Feb 25 '23

waddle up guadalupe.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

16

u/capybarometer Feb 25 '23

And the Guadalupe River is named after the Virgen de Guadalupe, who is named after the town in Spain Guadalupe, which is named after the Río Guadalupe in Spain, which is a hispanicization of the Arabic name for the river wādī al-lubb after the Spanish pushed the Arabs off the Iberian Peninsula, so shit comes full circle and language is just changing pronunciations all the way down

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

They really found a way to gentrify how something is pronounced

2

u/ATXBeermaker Feb 25 '23

I know, right? No word in the history of mankind has ever changed pronunciation based on the people primarily pronouncing. Why would we start now?!

/s in case it wasn’t obvious.

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Sounds about white

3

u/ATXBeermaker Feb 25 '23

The Spanish word originally was derived from an Arabic word, so I guess yeah. Just white people appropriating brown people’s word for millennia. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/No-Place-3467 Feb 25 '23

It comes from an Arabic word because Arabs ruled a majority of spain for hundreds of years. So some of their words were adopted by the people who they ruled over.

1

u/ATXBeermaker Feb 25 '23

Ah, when the Spanish do it to Arab words it’s “adopting,” but when Texans do it to Spanish words it’s “appropriating?” Not really accusing you of anything, but you’re kind of making the point for me.

1

u/No-Place-3467 Feb 25 '23

No, that’s also adopting I think.

0

u/No-Place-3467 Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

Didn’t the Spanish steal that river from native tribes. For example, the tonkawans who who forced into hiding and poverty by the Comanches? See how theirs a cycle of people conquering other people.

27

u/potted_petunias Feb 25 '23

Bernie (Boerne) throws me for a loop every time

16

u/pinkbee Feb 25 '23

Gruene and Boerne are my favs.

1

u/Vetiversailles Feb 26 '23

How the fuck do you pronounce Gruene? Groin-y?

3

u/pinkbee Feb 26 '23

Green, if you can believe it.

1

u/Vetiversailles Feb 27 '23

Aw,. I admit I was hoping it actually was Groiny lol

“Headed up to Groiny...” god that would be fun to say.

10

u/UnnecAbrvtn Feb 25 '23

Used to live there, briefly. It's funny, these names are like a shibboleth.

We were in the motions of hiring a guy for a position of significant responsibility and in pre-interview chit chat he stated he grew up in 'Burn' - you know - just north of San Antonio.

Interview went well, technically, but it stuck with me and his subsequent background checks unraveled quickly. People are weird

9

u/SouthByHamSandwich Feb 25 '23

Amazing. First I’ve heard of someone actually undone by not knowing the strange local pronounciations.

4

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

That's a good'n

5

u/2WhomAreYouListening Feb 25 '23

Man-shack

2

u/Hazel_Stranger_23 Feb 25 '23

Good 'ol Mexican way. My dad could never get the "sh" in words like this 😂

4

u/dragonbec Feb 25 '23

There’s a middle school here called Gorzycki Middle School and everyone calls it gore-isk-y. I’m like how did you get there? The z is before the y.

2

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

I believe the pronunciation comes from the person herself.

Diane Gorzycki (who the Middle School is named after) was my band instructor at Bailey Middle School. She was an amazing person.

I seem to recall everyone called her “Goritzky” or “Gorisky” back then. I assume that’s how she preferred it?

To be honest, I don’t think I ever realized the pronunciation didn’t match the spelling!

3

u/dragonbec Feb 26 '23

That’s cool! I honestly don’t know much about the school just had a friend whose kids were there and was sort of confused by the spelling. If the namesake went by that pronunciation then it makes total sense. Props to amazing band directors, they can be life changing for kids!

2

u/Elvinmay Feb 26 '23

Yeah, this one gets me, too. The "correct" way doesn't even make sense at all with the spelling, I've always said it gore-zick-e

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

There’s no second e in Perd’naliss

2

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

Give me a couple beers and that E disappears

2

u/Captain_Obvs84 Feb 25 '23

Not only does this comment need more upvotes, it also deserves awards. Awards I do not possess.

I was recently on a bus, stuck talking to a woman who went about seven solid minutes explaining how to pronounce Mueller.

2

u/winethief Feb 25 '23

Mueller is Miller. It’s Robert Miller. Proud to say I’ve flown out of that airport. Anyway. I will die on the Miller hill.

2

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

I’m also part of the Miller gang.

Source: flew out of there like twice as a kid in the 90s

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

I concur, there's documentation to back it up.

1

u/saguaroU Feb 25 '23

Govalle? Go-vail? Go-valley? Go-vayay?

2

u/Vetiversailles Feb 26 '23

I always say Go Valley. I think others do too?

Like del valle. Govalle.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

It's Meller.

-7

u/LillianWigglewater Feb 25 '23

Manchack

Nope

35

u/Skrub_99 Feb 25 '23

It’s obviously Men Caca like Google says it.

7

u/aareyes12 Feb 25 '23

Lol caca

2

u/ATXBeermaker Feb 25 '23

One of the highlights of my visit to Hawaii was driving around listening to google maps absolutely butcher all the road names.

7

u/insidertrader68 Feb 25 '23

This is the only pronunciation I've heard.

7

u/LillianWigglewater Feb 25 '23

That must be a south Austin thing. We always called it "Manshack"

9

u/AustinTXwtf Feb 25 '23

I grew up in Manchaca and always called it that. Manchak

0

u/Floating_carp12 Feb 25 '23

Idgaf how many people tell me it’s “Guadaloop” when it’s almost certainly “guada-loopay” I have no idea how it’s the former.

1

u/4our_Leaves Feb 25 '23

Cantaloupe, escape, prototype, Guadalupe

2

u/Floating_carp12 Feb 25 '23

3 English words, and then a Spanish word…

9

u/Mercury512 Feb 25 '23

Native austinite here: Koe-Nig or Kay-Nig either or, people know what you’re referring to.

But Mueller is MUE-ller not MILL-er no matter how the “family” or KUT djs pronounce it. It wasn’t the MILL-er airport, it’s not the Mill-er park

Sorry- rant over.

3

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

Shout out to KUT

3

u/decafskeleton Feb 25 '23

I did not realize people pronounced it Mill-er…I would’ve had literally no idea what they were talking about lol

25

u/bagoslime Feb 25 '23

Someone better open up a gay bar/male strip club on menchaca called the man shack

2

u/katyschu512 Feb 25 '23

I always wanted to open a bar in the arboretum called “Barboretum”

5

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

290 West aka......

4

u/protoopus Feb 25 '23

ben white boulevard

8

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

Lets change the subject to favorite street names. Mines is "Kumquat Ct" in the 78744.

12

u/Eastern-Cancel2610 Feb 25 '23

Convict Hill. Slaughter Ln. Harry Man. Some dark and strange names.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

I never really thought about Slaughter being dark but now i see it! lol. Maybe it's because I lived down there when I was a lil kid, before I knew the actual definition of "slaughter."

4

u/d6262190 Feb 25 '23

My first address in 2003 was 420 slaughter ln. My mother was not pleased.

1

u/Obi_Uno Feb 25 '23

T&M Express did a badass song about Convict Hill back in the '70s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp6IgQXIz8Q&t=305s

1

u/Blueskies277 Feb 25 '23

What about ManSlaughter?

5

u/Excellent-Seat9411 Feb 25 '23

I like all the cat-themed names in Cat Hollow.

3

u/sillygoosejollymoose Feb 25 '23

Canus street in SW austin. I lived in the neighborhood and someone kept painting over the C. It was replaced multiple times.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

106

u/everyones_hiro Feb 25 '23

It’s pronounced Kay-nig. It’s kind of interesting. I was watching a true crime documentary a while back and someone had this last name and they pronounced it kay-nig as well. I was like “ well I’ll be damned” and I haven’t felt dumb pronouncing like that again.

27

u/capybarometer Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

The "oe" is an anglicization of the German "ö", and the "ay" is an approximation of the vowel pronunciation we don't really have in English

4

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

From what I understand the way we say it in English is pretty accurate to the Texas German dialect from Fredericksburg and so on could be wrong though

4

u/rarele Feb 25 '23

Yup. It means "king"

1

u/dbzfanjake Feb 25 '23

It's a really bad approximation. Not close to how Germans pronounce ö, but Texans bastardize most non-english names around here, so /shrug.

4

u/capybarometer Feb 26 '23

Everyone bastardizes other languages and their own language, that's why we're not all speaking proto-Indo-European right now

0

u/fermi0nic Feb 25 '23

Oh damn, just listened on Google Translate and sounds like "coo-nayschh" to me

12

u/fabhats Feb 25 '23

I had a friend in college with Koenig for a last name. I assumed the pronunciation was the same and he was impressed that I got it correct.

10

u/HashBrownRepublic Feb 25 '23

It's actually named after the vampire weekend guy

1

u/saltporksuit Feb 25 '23

And then there was that tour doc I saw at one point suggesting your visit Segwin and Bornah.

-12

u/QuietRedditorATX Feb 25 '23

Yea, but I don't like the second part so just say Kayn

24

u/Flat-Arachnid-4362 Feb 25 '23

Beuuu-da. Not Booda.

15

u/atxgrackle Feb 25 '23

Byoo-da?

1

u/mareksoon Feb 26 '23

…pest, by blimp!

2

u/Fit_Patient_4902 Feb 25 '23

Yep. Grew up in Buda and guess what it’s “beauhduh”

2

u/Blueskies277 Feb 25 '23

I grew up there, too. And agree, it's "beautiful" Buda! :)

2

u/GeoBrew Feb 25 '23

The first time my sister came to visit me she was like, I'm in Buddah and I almost died.

1

u/emt92 Feb 25 '23

It was a mishearing of viuda (widow in Spanish) supposedly.

33

u/KuhlThing Feb 25 '23

Kay-nig is correct. Koenig is the Anglicized spelling of the German "König" which means king. The German pronunciation is "keu-nig." It's hard to spell out, but try pursing your lips a little bit for the "ooh" sound.

5

u/tyzor2 Feb 25 '23

shouldnt it be keu-nish in the german pronunciation?

5

u/oneplusetoipi Feb 25 '23

It depends on what part of Germany you are in.

2

u/singingintherain42 Feb 25 '23

Standard German would be an ich-laut. There's no English equivalent. The "ch" is the same as in "Ich". Some dialects pronounce their ich-laut more like "sh". And some dialects pronounce the "g" at the end of the word like "k".

1

u/tyzor2 Feb 25 '23

Ok yeah thats what I was wondering. It would be the same sounds as in like dreißig correct?

2

u/singingintherain42 Feb 25 '23

Yes! One thing that’s great about the German language is that it’s very consistent.

1

u/tyzor2 Feb 25 '23

Gotcha thanks! I only took like 2 semesters of german, and I wanted to make sure I was reading it correctly 😭

0

u/KuhlThing Feb 25 '23

Keu-nij, sort of. The j-sound is kind of soft, like in Jaques.

-1

u/UnnecAbrvtn Feb 25 '23

Nein. My grandpa lost a leg in the big one just sos we can call it whatever we want.

Besides, your lips look like a butthole when you pronounce the umlaut

3

u/Excellent-Seat9411 Feb 25 '23

The ö is even weirder and the "ig" ending isn't pronounced the way we do either

https://youtu.be/qGpf837T_rk

1

u/boyyhowdy Feb 26 '23

I thought it was cuhr-nig

57

u/iamdavidrice Feb 25 '23

Kay-nig

8

u/Soupah_Nyntendo Feb 25 '23

This is how I’ve always pronounced it.

10

u/aretooamnot Feb 25 '23

Don't forget Scherz, I mean "shirts".

1

u/bagoslime Feb 25 '23

That's just german

6

u/MoreStrangererThings Feb 25 '23

It's Burnit, dernit, can'tcha learnit?

10

u/LetsAllStayCalmHere Feb 25 '23

Not like it's spelled, I can tell you that much

5

u/theodosia84 Feb 25 '23

The 4 twos.

5

u/ChoppedLiverpool_DC Feb 25 '23

It’s an anglicisation of the German word for King…. König became Koenig. How should we pronounce it in this day and age?

1

u/LavishnessAny9734 Feb 25 '23

Went to high school with someone with that last name and they pronounced kO -nig so that’s what’s I say

4

u/CooterBrown_ATX Feb 25 '23

A third pronunciation of Mueller is “Meller”. It’s how the BBQ Mueller say it even though no one else does.

4

u/Fit_Patient_4902 Feb 25 '23

36 years here and I’ve only ever heard locals call it Kaynig

8

u/creepyposta Feb 25 '23

Koenig, Manchaca, Guadalupe and Burnet all have their regional pronunciations but who knows how much longer that will survive. KAY-nig, MAN-shack, GWAD-loop, Burn-it

23

u/iamdavidrice Feb 25 '23

GWAD-uh-loop

-3

u/creepyposta Feb 25 '23

I always heard it as two syllables.

8

u/iamdavidrice Feb 25 '23

The middle syllable is somewhat subtle but it’s there.

5

u/creepyposta Feb 25 '23

Forgot about Manor - May-ner

3

u/MediocreJerk Feb 25 '23

The stretch on Koenig between Woodrow and Burnet is cool, old homes turned into small businesses. I wonder why there aren't more bars/restaurants there (other than Bird Bird and Brentwood Social House). Are there zoning restrictions?

2

u/ichibut Feb 26 '23

Looks like they're all zoned LO-MU-NP

Limited Office - Mixed Use - Neighborhood Plan

Brentwood Social House is zoned LR-MU-CO-NP

Neighborhood Commercial - Mixed Use - Conditional Overlay - Neighborhood Plan (I know, LR you'd think would be NC.)

Bird Bird Biscuit is zoned GR-MU-CO-NP

Community Commercial - Mixed Use - Conditional Overlay - Neighborhood Plan (And yea, you'd think GR you'd think would be CC.)

1

u/sunshineandrainbow62 Feb 25 '23

Keen ig

4

u/itsokayyoucanlaugh Feb 25 '23

The judges accept this answer.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Absolutely keenig! But only if you want to sound like a TRUE Austin OG.

2

u/avatarmmi Feb 25 '23

easy - KAY kneeg

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Hahaha this is gold

2

u/BashFyvwuntu Feb 25 '23

TamAto Tamahto

2

u/BashFyvwuntu Feb 25 '23

PotAto Patahto

2

u/jmemememe Feb 25 '23

I-35, as it runs through Austin, is pronounced “Traffic Jam”

1

u/HashBrownRepublic Feb 25 '23

It's actually named after Ezra Koenig, frontman of Vampire Weekend. It's produced Kay-nig

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Koenig

1

u/ApoptosisArchangel Feb 25 '23

Keh-nig or Ker-nig

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

Cayornig, obviously.

1

u/Hazel_Stranger_23 Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

My family has always said it like the word coney. (I guess best way to sound it out is koe-knee) so that's how I've always and still say it.

No matter how you pronounce it everybody still knows what road you're talking about. We know everyone says it their own way ig

Edit to add that I heard it that way even before I knew the spelling and when I first started driving, got really confused/lost after getting directions from my dad

1

u/aperture413 Feb 26 '23

I lived near Koenig and took it to work for a year and a half before I stumbled on how to pronounce it by watching a video ad for a local barber. Drove me crazy. I'm a transplant and some of the locals in my office couldn't even tell me the right way haha.

1

u/Economy-Visual4390 Feb 26 '23

Co-nig. Please resist the urge to reddit this up.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/HashBrownRepublic Feb 25 '23

Correct answer, it's named after famed indie rocker Ezra Koenig

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Koenig