You've heard it pronounced a half-dozen different ways in songs, by movie characters, and by locals. Now you're heading to New Orleans and you're not sure exactly how you're supposed to pronounce the place without embarrassing yourself in front of the locals.
Let's start with how not to pronounce it.
"N'awlins" -- Please, never. Never, ever, ever. What are you, a bad actor in a worse movie? No! No "N'awlins." No one who lives anywhere near the city says it like that.
Well, unless we're making fun of tourists who say it like that. Save yourself some embarrassment and just don't go there.
"New Orleeeeeenz" -- I know this one is tempting. Louis Armstrong crooned "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans..." and the same pronunciation has shown up in any number of songs before and since.
Also, in order to confuse the rest of the world, the parish (what we call counties in Louisiana) of Orleans is pronounced "Orleeenz," so if you end up in, say, Orleans Parish Prison (I can't imagine why you would, but on the off-chance...), you're going to pronounce it like this. But that's the only time.
"New Or-lee-inz" -- There was a Simpsons episode where Marge took part in a musical adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, and one of the songs was a parody/satire about New Orleans, and in it, Harry Shearer (a resident of New Orleans) jokingly pronounced it "New Or-lee-inz." But it was a joke. Again, to throw in a point of confusion, some of the old-liners in the city, with their fancy uptown accents, do actually pronounce it kind of like this (well, more like "nyoo aw-lee-inz," actually) but if anyone else does it, they sound like a goofball.
So here we go. The right way to pronounce the name of the place is:
"New Or-linz" -- Three syllables. Easy peasy. Don't complicate it, don't drawl it (unless you actually have a drawl of your own), don't be cute. If you want people to understand you and not laugh at you, this is the way to go.
