Spyke
thelemmy.club

There was a disagreement on how to pronounce Arkansas; the first two US senators from Arkansas disagreed on how to say it.

Congress ended up having to request the Arkansas legislature in defining how to pronounce the state name.

29
lemmy.world

If you want people to call you Arkansaw, don't spell it Arkansas. Thankyou for coming to my TED Talk.

35
lemmy.world

I, an east coaster, once bought a car from Texarkana. When I learned it was literally on the border of Texas and Arkansas, I think my brain broke. Great share, thanks!

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wjriireply
lemmy.world

Well, which Texarkana did you buy it from?

7

Arkansas side. Drunken ebay purchase out in the sticks that amazingly worked out. '72 olds 98 that sounded like a c47 on approach. Thanks for listening to my lame nonsense.

3
lemmy.world

Here's the really crazy thing.

Ark City, KS is located on the Ar-KAN-sas River. But this is the same river that flows through Little Rock under the name AR-kan-saw.

17
lemmy.one

We come through and destroy an entire native civilization, and as a final "fuck you" we butcher their dead languages and name military equipment after them.

12

Oh, don’t forget putting towns named after some of the military officials that subjugated them on their reservation land.

5
Classyreply
sh.itjust.works

The Mackinac Bridge connects the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. It is in Mackinaw City. There is a nearby island, Mackinac.

The bridge is mackin-awwh.
The city is mackin-awwh.
The island is mackin-awwh.

7
lemmy.world

There’s a Newark NJ and a Newark DE.

The Jersey one is pronounced Newurk and the Delaware one is pronounced New Ark. It’s mildly inconvenient.

12
wjriireply
lemmy.world

The little town in Texas is also "New Ark".

Some of my other favorites:

Texas

  • Montague = mon-TAYG (hard 'g')
  • Italy = IT-lee (2 syllables)
  • Buda = BUD-duh (EDIT: or is it BYOO-duh ?)

Georgia

  • Vienna = VYE-eena
  • Cairo = KAY-roe

Canada (less experience here, tbf)

  • Newfoundland = NEW-fin-LAND (do NOT slur the "land" part. Enunciate!)
7
ninjabardreply
lemmy.world

Texas has so many. Bogota pronounced buh-GO-duh

Arkansas has a Lafayette county pronounced luh-FAY-it even though that county literally borders Louisiana.

Don't even get me started on Bowie, DeKalb, or Houston.

2
flickerreply
lemmy.world

I'm gonna add one I love trotting out from Oklahoma.

There's a Miami, Oklahoma. It's pronounced My-am-uh.

I've got about a billion from Oklahoma specifically.

1
ripcordreply
lemmy.world

Ah yes. "Hoo-ston" and "How-ston" are definitely both things.

"De-kab" and "De-kalb"

Haven't run into the Bowie one.

1

In Texas it's Boo-wee. That was the man's name as is the knife that bears it. Outside of Texas people mispronounce it as Bow-ee like Ziggy Stardust.

If you're talking about David (rest in power) Bowie, then it's Bow-ee. But the knife is Boo-wee.

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KingJalopyreply
lemm.ee

Company I work for is based in Buda but everyone pronounces it "byooduh".

1
wjriireply
lemmy.world

I defer to you then. I just know it's not Booduh like it god damned well should be. Was reminded elsewhere in this thread that we also have a Ne-VAY-duh in Texas, to say nothing of the Native American placenames that almost every state has specifically to fuck with newcomers, even though they undoubtedly moved from a state that has its own examples.

1

Lol, that's what I thought it was until they corrected me on the phone. I don't live anywhere near there but that's how they say it to me.

1

There's also a Newark Ohio which is pronounced something like 'nu-urk' or even 'nurk' by some (the latter I always took as people being silly, but I don't even know anymore).

1
midwest.social

TBH, I’m a native Kansan and have only ever heard it called “Ark City.”

8
fedia.io

Ohio is great for shit pronunciations of town names.

Bellfountaine - bell FOUN'n (the t drops there in most dialects, some would say 'fountain' with the the first syllable stressed).

Versailles - verSAILS

Medina - muhDYEnuh

5
lemmy.world

We have "verSAILS" in Indiana too. Also:

Peru - Pee-roo

Russiaville - Roosha-vil

Lebanon - Leb'nun

My favorite though is that there are two spellings for the Wabash river: Wabash and Ouabache. And despite being in a town that is on the Wabash River, the local Oabache Elementary School is pronounced: Wah-bat-shee.

6

I think y'all also have KAY-row (Cairo) if I remember right. (or maybe that's Illinois?)

2

Right down the road from Versailles is the town I grew up in and the movie Hoosiers is based off of. Milan (pronounced my - lan)

2

The pronunciation of Lebanon you called out may sound like it came from a hayseed, but it’s closer to the way people in the country of Lebanon pronounce it than the mainstream American pronunciation.

2
fedia.io

or rio grande (rye-oh grand).

I'm not sure how Gallipolis should actually be pronounced. The ~polis suffix seems sensible enough, but not sure on the first part.

1
emmeramreply
lemm.ee

I’ve heard people pronounce it as “galli-PO-lease”

1
fedia.io

I would say the Ohio version gal-uh-puh-LISS and I think that's how people I knew from there said it, but it's been a couple decades, heh.

1
nelsonreply
lemmy.sdf.org

My extended family is from a tiny Ohio hill town named Antioch, pronounced "annie-OCK".

1

I've been there a couple of times. I say the 't' in anti, but I guess the locals don't

1
wjriireply
lemmy.world

Natchitoches, Louisiana (/ˈnækətəʃ/ NAK-ə-təsh), or “Nakadish”

Yet Nacogdoches, Texas is more or less how you would think, Nack-uh-doe-chiss.

2

Well, I reckon that phrase "more or less" that I put in my previous comment is having to do a fair bit of work.

1

That's how they pronounce Nevada County in Arkansas. Also, Dierks is Dereks. I'm sure there are more that will come to me

1