Me: “Wah-KEH-shu, wah-KEE-shu” I don’t dare visit Weyauwega. Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball - The Wisconsin Badgers is a NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Which syllable gets the stress and from there, how do you pronounce it? How to say Wisconsin. With a click of a button, it's possible to hear exactly how to pronounce all of Wisconsin's cities, villages, towns and unincorporated areas — and even the names of state lawmakers. Trials and tribulations of the Land of O's. She'd get her information from a community's leaders or more trustworthy citizens by recording their pronunciations of whatever town they represented. (Do you pronounce TE-le-vi-sion or te-le-VI-sion?) The name was later changed to Ypsilanti in 1829 in honor of Demetrius Ypsilanti. “I’ve heard Ray-cine and Ruh-cine and each side will argue that the other side is wrong.”. Pronounce the “Y” like an “I”. Do you know how to pronounce all of these town names? Funny, considering its way up nort der. Updated: 5:36 PM CDT May 2, 2019 Slideshow. There are many more specifics that go behind this blog that I don’t touch on. Usually, the people who butcher names like "Wauwatosa" … Seeing a need, Johnson built MissPronouncer.com, a website that lists the state's more than 1,000 place names with an audio clip that sounds out the correct pronunciation of each. Don’t be that person. Oconomowoc (Waukesha County) So there are probably hundreds of hard-to-pronounce Native American town names in Wisconsin, but Oconomowoc is one of my favorites because it stumps every single out-of-towner. Wisconsin is a state located in the Midwestern United States.As of April 1, 2010, there were 190 cities in Wisconsin. … Stress patterns are found in Algonquian languages. “I think most people, rather than be offended, smile and think ‘That’s my place, that’s my hometown, I know how to pronounce it and here’s my opportunity to tell people about it.’”. One of the surest ways to spot someone who isn’t from here is to watch them struggle while attempting to pronounce Wisconsin town names. On Twitter, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin asked readers for their opinions on the hardest-to-pronounce place in the state; nearly two dozen people enthusiastically offered up their suggestions within minutes. For example, Potawatomi = … Subtly, they conveyed the message, "Damn right, these towns are hard to pronounce and we're proud of it.". In fact, the name “Wisconsin” … Wisconsin names: tapestries of our histories. Clubhouse Live: Packers John Kuhn, Eddie Lacy play HWDYK? Most of these names come from Native American words used to name the area, but then even on top of that, a lot of them are Anglicized versions of the Native American names. Wisconsin native: *laughs*. Listen to the audio pronunciation in English. The municipality is known as "The Land of Five O's" and a sculpture of five O's all linked together —  slightly reminiscent of the Olympics logo — sits in the middle of downtown Oconomowoc. "I think people could be intimidated by looking at it, seeing it all spelled out with a bunch of O's," said Oconomowoc's economic development manager Bob Duffy, who was also named the 2015 Citizen of the Year by the Oconomowoc Area Chamber of Commerce. If you're wondering why some of the place names in Wisconsin are so complex, the best place to start may be by studying the origins of the state's name itself. No one has shown, in a scientific way, that Wisconsin has more hard-to-pronounce names than typical for a state. But consider the fact that there is an entire website that lists how to correctly pronounce each Wisconsin place name. A lot of these words were originally from the Ojibwe, Potowatomi or Menominee languages, which are all a part of the Algonquian language family. Lowry is pronounced “Lahowree“. Charlotte If you’ve been pronouncing Charlotte like the city in North Carolina, guess again! Find her on Twitter as @mel_lawder or follow her on Instagram as @mellawder. I can totally understand why someone not from these parts would look at this name and say “Low-ree”, but they would be wrong. Happy pronouncing . Johnson crafted the site's huge database by calling up the librarians, visitor centers and tourism associations in communities with names that puzzled her. Places are named because settlers want to live in place that reflects their own heritage — Stockholm in Pepin County came about because the emigrants were Swedish — and thus many Wisconsin place names can be traced to the American Indians and the French. These town and city names in Wisconsin that are so hard to pronounce, however, are not of English origin, which should be no surprise. List of cities Wisconsin native Jackie Johnson was working in news and radio in 2005 when she realized that there was no resource for broadcasters confused by the correct phonetics of a Wisconsin place name. “And I think because it’s something special, it’s like a little secret, but it’s something they have — to be able to say 'Oconomowoc,' or 'Rio' or 'Waukesha.'”. Because why not, right? Getty Images. Tyngsborough: With a population of over 11,000 the Middlesex County community can be hard for some people to say because of the “Y” in the name. How nice of them! “People get passionate, even people who live in that city (Racine) differ amongst themselves,” she said. How to pronounce Wisconsin. But for those who may not be familiar with the Midwest’s naming convention, these Texans have one heck of a time. But really, this one isn't that hard to pronounce once you train your brain to think of "sia" as "shah." Yes, it’s a challenge, and being bilingual won’t necessarily help. Oconomowoc, Waukesha and Mukwonago are a few that topped the list. (With) people who grew up here, as I did, all that's sort of second nature.". The entire name rolls off the tongue as Zah-shah. Video by Mike De Sisti Most Wisconsinites will know that this northeastern town is pronounced “Shaw-no” and not “Shaw-ah-no” or “Shay-wah-no”. Its Ojibwe word was “Zhaawanong”, which loosely means “in the south” or “of the south”. Sources I used can be found here, here and from websites of these communities named in the blog. How well can you actually pronounce these difficult to say city names in Wisconsin, such as Oconomowoc and Mukwonago? Learn more. 3. During this time, visitors to the yet-to-be-named village assumed that the "Eleva" painted on the structure was the village's name. It can be hilarious to witness. If you’ve had trouble figuring out how to pronounce these Native American names in the area, maybe this surface-level explanation helps make you feel a bit better about mispronouncing these words! BuzzFeed Staff, UK. But it is far from the only place in the Badger State with a hard-to-pronounce name. After all, the city's 10-letter name is a conversation starter. "I can tell in a minute a radio announcer who is new to the state," Apps said. All Rights Reserved. One of my favorite past-times as a Wisconsinite is watching my Minnesotan friend try to say “Oconomowoc”, which looks and sounds like she’s trying to cough up a brick. And there 's not easy to pronounce the audio pronunciation in the south ” is... If you ca n't pronounce it even get me started on Oconomowoc imagine that ll you. The area 's distinct geological features and not being from Wisconsin, List of villages in Wisconsin site's database. 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