Landing 1st time, fresh-of-the-boat, in the US back in '79, NYC, NY…
Asked my way to (Houston) HUE-ston street. Took 1O persons before one helped, by guessing :“Oh, you mean HOW-ston street ?”
Now guess how I blundered when I first visited Houston, Texas 
The carmel/caramel problem occurs in English (or Mer’cun) from two words which sound similar but have different origins. Carmel refers to a mountain in Haifa, Israel. The California town of Carmel probably was named something like Mission de Nuestra Senora de Carmel. Caramel, the candy, is pronounced caramelo in Italian and Spanish, where it refers to any bite-sized candy. But we English speakers don’t like those little syllables in the middle of words so we dropped it. I think.
Mike
On 2002-12-02 15:41, burnsbyrne wrote:
The carmel/caramel problem occurs in English (or Mer’cun) from two words which sound similar but have different origins. Carmel refers to a mountain in Haifa, Israel. The California town of Carmel probably was named something like Mission de Nuestra Senora de Carmel. Caramel, the candy, is pronounced caramelo in Italian and Spanish, where it refers to any bite-sized candy. But we English speakers don’t like those little syllables in the middle of words so we dropped it. I think.
Mike
Yes, the town is named after Mt. Carmel, though rather obliquely. The name of the mission there is Mission San Carlos Borromeos del Rio Carmelo (it’s actually the river that’s named after Mt. Carmel, the mission after the river, and the town after the mission). With a moniker like that, however, it’s little wonder that most folks hereabouts just refer to it as “Carmel Mission.”
BTW, technically, the name of the town is “The Village of Carmel-by-the-Sea,” and the mayor that pre-dated Clint Eastwoon used to insist on calling it by its full name whenever she referred to it, which got very old, very quickly. She was also, I believe, responsible for the infamous ice cream and high heels issue. No wonder old Clint got elected!
Redwolf
I moved to the Greater Boston area from Virginia as a child. I had great trouble prounouncing Worcester (I thought it was War-chester, not Woostah). People said that things were “mayan” instead of mine. Idears, Asiar instead of Idea and Asia.
Growing up in IL we learned to pronouce it App-A-Lea-chan(long A) but when I moved to TN - everything was App-a-latchan. Now I live in TX and I’m afraid to pronouce it at all. It’s the same with some of them thar other words you been talkin about. 
I say “appa LATCH an”, as does everyone else who went to college at “happy Appy” located in the big city of Boone, NC.
By the way, when you get in the elevator do you “mash the button” or press it?
Happy toons,
Paulsdad