And a major street runs through both Boston and Cambridge (and beyond) and it's almost always called Mass Ave.

I don't think people here in Massachusetts mind Mass.

Oops, maybe that should be Mass Av.

Now "beantown" is a different story. I never hear that locally.

I've lived in San Jose since 1995 and I have never heard it called The City. True, it is the largest city in northern CA, but The City is still SF.

"I don't think people here in Massachusetts mind Mass."

my point exactly :)

One of the many reasons I dislike the use Cali is because it perpetuates the (mis)pronunciation of California used by our former governor.

Actually since it used to be Mexico, Ahnold was technically pronouncing it correctly. And it should be lOs angeles not LOSS angeles.

LA is OK, that's what the city has been called for years by people who live there. (i'm native)

"Cali" not so much.

@tracy -- per the L.A. Times, circa 1925, the correct pronunciation of Los Angeles is: "Loce Ahng hail ais" (which was, I read, on their masthead -- the pronunciation, that is)

It should be the way people customarily say it, to expedite communication (in English). Example: Angeles, not Anheles.

And for all I know, the way Arnold pronounces California is with an Austrian accent. I don't know how legitimate Californya is, but that's the way I say it.

Actually, I just realized I actually say Californyuh, as most of us gringos do.

Chill.

Tom if you say that in Chile, the natives are going to be all over you.

LA *is LA - :)

Cali is just plain weird. My soon to be 15 year old thinks it is VERY odd when people call it Cali. When we lived there no one did...we move to Texas and people here do :-?

Surfer girl is giving the correct Spanish pronunciation of Los Angeles. After all, the city was founded and named by the Spanish and it means "the angels". However only native Spanish speakers use the Spanish pronunciation. But even they favor the quicker to say LA.

And since this thread is apparently never going to die, I'll add one more item: People who live in Hawaii find it offensive when tourists refer to the mainland as "the states".

I wonder what the pre colonial natives to the land thought of the Spanish calling their land 'California?'

Good point about pre-colonial natives in CA. I'm sure they were quite offended. Especially when they heard that all the land they live on was now owned by Spain.

The City, in fact, refers to New York City and more paricularly to Manhattan, not bloody Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island, or Queens. NYers would never refer to it as The Big Apple, as asked above. That term was revived by a tourist promotion in 1971.
My step-daughter has said that she and her boyfriend will be moving to Cali - ugh, ugh, ugh. We've told her that only hayseeds call it that. In other words, don't call it that if you want to be thought cool, whatever. Perhaps its use comes from rappers, but now it's undoubtedly used by the smartphone set with all their abbreviations.

Whatever.

Ummm...this thread is 2.5 years old.