I live a couple of miles from Quin-NIP-ee-ak. Around here most people pronounce it as “that irritating school where the student parties in residential neighborhoods are damaging property values.”
Bogota, NJ, rhymes with pagoda.
There is a suburb of Rochester, NY called Chili. It is pronounced “Chai Lie”
@skieurope and @thumper1 So true about NE towns.
One observation having worked there for a short time before the paper mills closed in the mid 90s. It’s actually Berl-in. To the locals. The emphasis on the first as stated but the first syllable includes the L that rolls slightly into the -in. Almost a Berl-en sound to me. It’s also a town with many of native locals being francophone. Or the québécois and NH version of French.
And for Mass towns - Gold Bond Powder had a radio commercial that featured an actual customer who said they were from Haverhill Mass. Haver Hill. Everyone from the area knows it’s pronounced Haver-ill, no H. Actually many times it’s even more of a havruhl feel to it. So many complaints they had to remove the ads lol.
Those in the know only pronounce it with two syllables. 
This is not so much about pronunciation, but the discussion of MA towns made it irresistible to post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tszk53PWge8 Note his pronunciation of Cape Cahd.
Sounded correct to me.
My mother has always mispronounce words, which drives my daughter batty; the rest of us just live with it. The restaurant Maggiano’s is pronounced Ma ghe own ees; when I mention the restaurant, I have to stop and think how to say it correctly as I am so use to hearing her say it wrong!
The city of Miami, OK is pronounced Miam-uh, and Thoreau, NM is pronounced “Threw”.
@snowball There’s a restaurant by that name in Somerset Ma by the Taunton River. Tawtin Riva.
I’ve spent most of my life in New England but went to high school in NC. That’s the land where they say the sport where the boys try to pin each other to a mat is “wrastling,” married women who use their husband’s last name are “mizriz” (Mrs.) Jones, and the traffic signals that let people know when to stop or go are “lots,” as in “go down 6 lots, turn right at the 6th lot.” I think the rooms, and the furniture that goes in them, are suites (sw-ee-ts).
I think there’s a NYS park near a town named New Berlin. The people there pronounce it “New Burr-lin.”
We were out to brunch today. One of the bakery options was a semolina orange cake. My husband unintentionally called it the salmonella cake. 
There’s a town along the northern Jersey Shore named “Forked River.” That’s “For-kid River”, thank you very much.
I once ordered a sesame Street bagel when my kids were little. Understandable, right? When I first moved to Boston in 1969 I had a friend who told me that she had to keep a kwadah for kafia. Turns out that was a quarter for carfare.
Being from Philly, I say many things “wrong”. It just sounds so strange to me me when people don’t ask for a glass of wooder.
Calais, Maine, is pronounced “callous.” Saco, Maine is “sah-co.” Bangor, Maine is “bang-gore” (emphasis on first syllable). Yarmouth, Maine is “yar-muth.”
In Texas, we pronounced “pen” as “pin.” Drives DH nuts.
Yes, It’s Q-pon.
It’s puh-con, not pee-can!!! That one drives me bonkers. I tell New Englanders it’s the state tree of Texas, so I should know how it’s pronounced.
I have to stop myself from ordering a “whiz with” (or whiz wit if attempting an accent) at any place outside Philly.
Re: servers & pronunciation.
Where I work, we teach the staff to avoid correcting the guest and to go with the flow.
So, as you can imagine, the staff ends up pronouncing Italian words “American-style” because part of getting the order correct is repeating the order back to the guest while also avoiding correcting them in front of everyone at the table.
I grew up saying melk for milk, and didn’t change until someone made fun of me in college.
I can get quite self-conscious about pronunciations.
I mis-pronounced the word “residual”, several times, in a class presentation in college. I was super nervous speaking in front of the class, barely holding on, and then the professor grew irritated & corrected my pronunciation and asked me to wrap it up.
One of those life moments where you wish you could just die on the spot.
Oh well! I survived, although I remain sensitive to the grammar & pronunciation police when they are around me.
This fall under “pick your battles” for me, because the entire population of the US says “lasagna” wrong, unless you are talking about one noodle. It’s “lasagne.”