Toni

Our hotel is close to this area but haven't a clue as to how this is pronounced. Thanks for your help!

Paul Revere

You'll probably get a few different responses, but we say Fan-you-ul, with the accent on Fan. Some people say Fan-el, altogether real fast.

Ann

Consensus in my office is to pronounce it to rhyme with Daniel (Faniel). Minority opinion was to rhyme with Manual or even Fan'l. How do the rest of you Bostonians pronounce it???

Pris

An exact rhyme with Daniel. Fan'l always sounds a little iggerant to me.

betsy

I've lived in Boston for 4 years and grew up in Northern New England-I've always pronounced it like Fan-yul.

Dick

I've always understood that the proper pronunciation rhymes with "flannel", but virtually everyone I know says "FAN-yul". I think the 3 syllable "FAN-you-ul" is reserved for out-of-towners.

cheryl

I'm another Bostonian agreeing that it rhymes with "Daniel".

Kay

I think the "*aniel " response sounds the best. However, this question brought to mind a longstanding query of mine==what is the significance or history of the grasshopper or cricket on top of the spire of the Hall? I have looked in history books, encyclopedia, visitors bureaus, library==all to no avail. If it were in Salt Lake City I would guess it was a locust!! I did hear one story-that it is a cricket and that the noise a cricket makes was used as a signal during the Revolutionary War by the Bostonians to identify wheather friend or foe. What do you think???

Donna

Another vote for "Faniel".

As for the weathervane, the grasshopper on Faneuil Hall was chosen by Peter Faneuil (and made by Shem Drown) due to the grasshopper weathervane atop the London Royal Exchange, "the heart of the British Empire's financial affairs". He copied this symbol to establish Boston as the center of finance for the "new world".

tweedy

I grew up just on the other side of the Callihan and Summner Tunnels (Winthrop) and we pronounce it "FAN-you-ell".

It is one one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. As a kid that area was awful, old empty wharehouses and the "meat district". We used to come into Boston on Saturdays and buy meat and fish in that area. How things have changed.

Have a fun trip to "Bean Town", so much now to see and do.

Have to say my heart was broken recently on a trip home, as I wanted to bring my honey to "Brighams" for the BEST choclate frappe in the world. WHAT HAPPENED TO BRIGHAMS? The ones I knew are gone. Are there any more in town and if so please share WHERE?
(lol)

tweedy

Annie

Hi, Tweedy! To find the address/phone number for all the Brigham's, try:
http://www.brighams.com/restaurantfolder/rlocator.html
Have a banana split, for me!

tweedy

Annie, we are now friends for life. You don't know how difficult it was to find a Brighams the last time we were home, all the old places I knew have been closed and no one could give me an idea of where there were locations.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. Ok the next time we go home, it's Kelly and then downtown for a Choclate Shake at Brighams, (lol)
who says "you can never go home"?

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!

tweedy