• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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!

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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.

    • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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      2 months ago

      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.

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      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.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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!)
      • ninjabard@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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.

        • flicker@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          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.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

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

          “De-kab” and “De-kalb”

          Haven’t run into the Bowie one.

          • ninjabard@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            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.

        • wjrii@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          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.

          • KingJalopy @lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            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.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      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).

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    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

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • hate2bme@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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)

      • emmeram@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        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.

    • nelson@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

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

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        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.

          • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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            2 months ago

            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.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

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

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

    • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

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