Apr 13, 2006

Washington state shibboleths

These are the toughest of the tough, since most of them are anglicized spellings of Salishan place names.

1. Sequim
2. Puyallup
3. Geoduck
4. Dosewallips
5. Steilacoom
6. Kalalock
7. Hoquiam
8. Wynooche
9. Pend Oreille
10. Mukilteo
11. Naches

1. Skwim
2. Pyoo-AL-up
3. GOO-ee-duck
4. Doe-see-WALL-ups
5. STILL-a-kuhm
6. KLAY-lock
7. HOE-kwee-uhm
8. Why-NOO-chee
9. Pawn-duh-RAY
10. Muh-kil-TEE-oh
11. Na-CHEEZ

Impress the locals! More place name shibboleths for your study.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tacoma, I've found, gets a lot of the non-locals, who would say "Taco-ma" rahter than "Tac-om-a."

TeacherRefPoet said...

Kalama, which rhymes with damn-a, not with Bahama.

Rainier. The accent is on the first syllable, not the second.

It's incredible how many miss Spokane, too, which does not rhyme with No Cane, but with No Can.

My Uncle Fred put the accent on the second syllable of Yakima. So it rhymed with Zima.

Jim Anderson said...

On the plus side, if you can get Pe Ell, you can get Cle Elum.

Pat Patterson said...

Years ago I heard a national broadcast the announcer refer to La JOLah and El CaJohn instead of the correct silent j as in Spanish used in La HOYah and El CaHONE.