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.
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.
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!
Wait till you hear where Calexico and Mexicali are.
Well, which Texarkana did you buy it from?
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.
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.
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.
Y'all come to New Orleans and try to pronounce a single street name "right."
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.
The little town in Texas is also "New Ark".
Some of my other favorites:
Texas
Georgia
Canada (less experience here, tbf)
Arab, Alabama. (Ay-rab)
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.
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).
TBH, I’m a native Kansan and have only ever heard it called “Ark City.”
That makes sense. It's like back in Morocco, how Morocco Mole is just called Mole.
And in Brazil, Brazil Nuts are just called nuts.
And on Long Island, it's just called "tea".
They're actually called Castanha do Pará (Pará Nuts), but whatever.
What do they call the in Pará then?
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
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.
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)
I think y'all also have KAY-row (Cairo) if I remember right. (or maybe that's Illinois?)
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.
My extended family is from a tiny Ohio hill town named Antioch, pronounced "annie-OCK".
Natchitoches, Louisiana (/ˈnækətəʃ/ NAK-ə-təsh), or “Nakadish”
Yet Nacogdoches, Texas is more or less how you would think, Nack-uh-doe-chiss.
top 50 comments