How do you pronounce Missouri?

[Halfmiler2]

Of course, certain names are pronounced differently in different places:

Newark, NJ (one syllable) versus Newark, DE (two syllables)
Arkansas (state) versus Arkansas (river)
Houston (the street in NYC) versus Houston, TX
NYC Mayor Ed Koch versus the runner Marita Koch

[Marlow]

Of course, certain names are pronounced differently in different places:

Heteronyms! English is rife with them.
(and then there's homophones and homonyms)

bow (bend over)-bow (front of boat)-bow (that you tie)-bow (shoots an arrow)
Then there's bough and bow wow.

"You don't know diddly!" said Bo.

[tandfman]

Of course, certain names are pronounced differently in different places:
Arkansas (state) versus Arkansas (river)

Apparently, even the river is pronounced differently in different places:

Name pronunciation varies by region. Many people in midwestern states, including Kansas and Colorado, pronounce it /ærˈkænzəs/ar-KAN-zəs,[8] while people in the state of Arkansas typically pronounce it /ˈɑrkənsɔː/AR-kən-saw according to a state law passed in 1881.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas_River

[j-a-m]

Arkansas (state) versus Arkansas (river)

Didn't Les Miles go with the ar-KAN-zəs pronunciation a few years ago when LSU played Arkansas?

[tandfman]

I've been to 5 or 6 meets in Fayetteville, and I don't recall ever having heard it pronounced ar-KAN-zes.

[lonewolf]

Ar-kan-sas City, Kansas .....Fayetteville, Ar-kan-saw,

The river changes pronounciation accordingly at the state line.

[502CD]

The hell it is - I grew up in Framingham, went to Framingham North HS, and we always pronounced the h.

Concord, NC = con-cord
Concord, MA or NH = conk-urd

I used to work in Framingham and always pronounced the H as well.

What's comical though is the H is not pronounced in Amherst but it is pronounced in Northampton the next town over.

[gh]

as I recall both Wichita State and Ouachita Baptist trace their lineage to the same tribe of native Americans.

[Halfmiler2]

I also recall one of the first times I announced at a track & field meet, I almost got my head handed to me for pronouncing Cardinal Dougherty H.S. of Philadelphia as DAHR-er-tee. Of course, it is DOCK-er-tee.

[Marlow]

as I recall both Wichita State and Ouachita Baptist trace their lineage to the same tribe of native Americans.

I'm still confused by the distinctions among the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Indians!

[lonewolf]

as I recall both Wichita State and Ouachita Baptist trace their lineage to the same tribe of native Americans.

Not exactly. It is a bit confusing.

The Ouachita (pronounced Wash-ita) were a NE Louisiana tribe that assimilated into the Nachitoch tribe and is now included on the Caddo, a dominant tribe in East Texas and Western Louisiana, tribal rolls.

Curiously, the Caddo reservation was/in SW Oklahoma.

Ouachita is a Choctaw word. The Choctaws, of course, were one of the Five Civilized Tribes that force migrated from SE USA in the 1840s Trail of Tears to reservation in Eastern Oklahoma, with present capital at Durant in SE OK.

The Ouachita Mountians in eastern Oklahoma/western Arkansas are geomorphically /metamorphosed/ troubled sedimentary mountains.

The Wichita were a plains tribe that roamed the Central Plains in Texas Oklahoma and Kansas: akin to the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapahoe..
Wichita Falls, Texas and Wichita, Kansas were influenced by this plains trib.

The Wichita Mountains in Southwestern Oklahoma are uplifted granite exposures of the Amarillo Uplift which plunges underground in the Texas Panhandle and mark the southern flank of the Anadarko Basin in SW Oklahoma.

Strangely Washita County in SW Oklahoma is presumably named for the Ouachita tribe of eastern Oklahoma with the French spelling imported from Louisiana corrected.

[Marlow]

Not exactly. It is a bit confusing. . . . . followed by a lot of very cool info about Plains Indians.

Lonewolf, you truly are a fo(u)nt* of interesting knowledge!

* = I had to google that to see it's spelled both ways - who knew!

[lonewolf]

Us'uns knew. I have both eastern (Choctaw/Creek) and western (Comanche) ancestors.

[Marlow]

Us'uns knew. I have both eastern (Choctaw/Creek) and western (Comanche) ancestors.

Lord willing and those pesky Creek don't rise again!

[lonewolf]

Us'uns knew. I have both eastern (Choctaw/Creek) and western (Comanche) ancestors.

Lord willing and those pesky Creek don't rise again!

The Creek are pretty passive.. its the Comanches you have to worry about.

[Marlow]

Us'uns knew. I have both eastern (Choctaw/Creek) and western (Comanche) ancestors.

Lord willing and those pesky Creek don't rise again!

The Creek are pretty passive.. its the Comanches you have to worry about.

From all the westerns I watched as a kid ( ), it wasn't the Sioux or Apache or even Comanche that we had to steer away from, it was the ARAPAHO!!!

[bambam]

Us'uns knew. I have both eastern (Choctaw/Creek) and western (Comanche) ancestors.

Lord willing and those pesky Creek don't rise again!

The Creek are pretty passive.. its the Comanches you have to worry about.

From all the westerns I watched as a kid ( ), it wasn't the Sioux or Apache or even Comanche that we had to steer away from, it was the ARAPAHO!!!

I don't think the Arapaho count as a separate tribe - they don't have a casino, which I believe is the modern definition.

[lonewolf]

Them too.

Arapaho is a distinct tribe that aligned with Southern Cheyenne in signing the third treaty of Medicine Lodge, circa 1867, giving up traditional hunting grounds from Kansas border to the Arkansas River in exchange for a "forever" reservation in west-central Indian Territory between the Canadian River and Kansas ... things got nastier as the government repeatedly and unilaterally violated the treaty in squeezing the tribes south of the Cimarron River.

Cheyenne-Araphoe currently have a very prosperous casino in Canadian County on what is left of their land. County Seat is at El Reno, site to the Fort Reno remount station.

Arapahoe is the county seat of Custer County, OK. It is a virtual ghost town with little more than the courthouse, Post Office and convenience store, across the river about four miles north of the much larger town of Clinton (pop 10,000).

I saw the Cowboy and Indian Saturday afternoon serials in my youth too.. don't remember the Injun's tribe being mentioned.. just them savage redskins..

[Marlow]

just them savage redskins..

Of course one of all of our favorite western characters was Tonto, and I can't wait to see what Johnny Depp does with him in next summer's blockbuster (not that he's a Native American! )

[gh]

I'm surprised Becca never weighed in with one from her neck of the woods: Sequim, Washington, pronounced "squim"

[Marlow]

I'm surprised Becca never weighed in with one from her neck of the woods: Sequim, Washington, pronounced "squim"

Reminds me of a Navy term I heard for a while before I figured it out:

Squeat

(let's go eat)

[JayIsMe]

Growing up in San Jose CA I always thought it funny that San Jose, Illinois is prounounced San Joe's.

[tandfman]

When I was a kid and I learned the state capitals, I assumed that Boise rhymed with noise, and was pronounced boyz. Then someone told me that it was actually two syllables, so i assumed that it was boy-zee. It was only when I actually went there for the first time (when they hosted the 1994 NCAA Championships) that I realized that the correct pronuciation is boy-see.

[Marlow]

When I was a kid and I learned the state capitals, I assumed that Boise rhymed with noise, and was pronounced boyz. Then someone told me that it was actually two syllables, so i assumed that it was boy-zee. It was only when I actually went there for the first time (when they hosted the 1994 NCAA Championships) that I realized that the correct pronuciation is boy-see.

10 out of 9 TV commentators say Boy-zee State, so there ya go!

[lonewolf]

Been there several times and did not realize there was a Boy-see/Boy-zee controversy...maybe my hearing has gotten so bad I cannot detect the difference.

[gh]

Good friend went to Boise and he is dogmatic about its being Boysee.

[Helen S]

In western PA there are the towns of Duboise pronounced locally ad DEW-boys (accent on the dew) and Versailles (ver-SALES). I keep lobbying for the city in Michigan to be pronounced de-TWA.

[preston]

In western PA there are the towns of Duboise pronounced locally ad DEW-boys (accent on the dew) and Versailles (ver-SALES). I keep lobbying for the city in Michigan to be pronounced de-TWA.

On my way to Paris in 2003, I stopped through Minneapolis - I was Flying NWA. While talking with a French woman about my next stop (we hadn't yet learned that we were on the same flight) I said "de-TROYT". To which she remarked, "you mean de-TWA!".

[lonewolf]

Chickasha (Chick-a-shay), OK seems pretty straightforward to the locals but frequently comes out Chic-kash-a from outlanders.

[bambam]

In western PA there are the towns of Duboise pronounced locally ad DEW-boys (accent on the dew) and Versailles (ver-SALES). I keep lobbying for the city in Michigan to be pronounced de-TWA.

Although it is actually Dubois for the spelling.

[bambam]

In western PA there are the towns of Duboise pronounced locally ad DEW-boys (accent on the dew) and Versailles (ver-SALES). I keep lobbying for the city in Michigan to be pronounced de-TWA.

On my way to Paris in 2003, I stopped through Minneapolis - I was Flying NWA. While talking with a French woman about my next stop (we hadn't yet learned that we were on the same flight) I said "de-TROYT". To which she remarked, "you mean de-TWA!".

My wife used to be an international flight attendant for TWA (that'll date us). One of her favorite comments from a Frenchwoman on one flight, was, as the pilot announced they were flying over the Grand Tetons, "Is it true that you have mountains named after women's breasts?"

[tandfman]

She may not have been wrong, you know.

The origin of the current name is controversial. The most common explanation is that "Grand Teton" means "large teat" in French, named by either French-Canadian or Iroquois members of an expedition led by Donald McKenzie of the North West Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Teton

[Helen S]

Thanks for correction Bam2. Pronounciation is weird either way.

[18.99s]

One of the funniest (and most bizarre) things that ever happened to me, happened in Towcester (pronounced "toaster" (!) ), England.

Reminds me of Worcester (pronounced "wooster").

[tandfman]

No, actually, as pointed out by preston earlier in this thread, it's more like wuh-sta. There are two r's in the name of the city as it's spelled, but no r's in the name as it's pronounced by locals. The first syllable, by the way, rhymes with book and the second syllable rhymes with uh.