Clatskanie, Mungindi.

The Log recently featured the name of an Oregon city called Clatskanie. The Log post forbade anyone to look up the pronunciation and insisted that everyone guess, which seemed both overbearing and silly to me — the interesting thing is how it actually is pronounced, which is (per Wikipedia, and who would make up such a thing?) /ˈklætskɪnaɪ/ (i.e. KLATS-ki-nye), named after the Tlatskanai tribe. And in the comments, Julian provided this wonderful story:

Joke/urban myth:
A young Australian overseas has lost his passport. Goes to the consulate to get a replacement.
The official has to check his bona fides of course.
“Where do you come from, mate?”
“Mungindi.”
“You’re good. Only someone who comes from Mungindi would know how to say that.”

But Julian too (perhaps overawed by the presentation of the post) avoided giving the pronunciation, which (again according to Wikipedia) is /ˈmʌŋɪndaɪ/ (MUNG-in-dye), which is said to mean ‘water hole in the river’ in Gamilaraay. As I’ve said many times, I love unpredictable local pronunciations!

Comments

  1. I wonder if /ˈhɜːrɪkən/ (HUR-ih-kən) is how the locals say the common noun as well?

  2. Nah, they talk pretty normal these days, and they know how to say hurricane. The local rural accent of days not-too-long gone by was popularly most noted for merging “orr” into “arr”, in words such as “formal” (*farmal) and “orange”.
    This particularity is said to account for my great grandfather’s middle name: allegedly, he was to be named after his own grandfather, Morten Peder Mortensen (Denmark 1828). Instead his name came out as James Martin Smith.

  3. Jen in Edinburgh says

    I’m not sure what the difference is between ɜ and ʌ, but HUR-ih-kən doesn’t seem that odd to me – it’s more or less the OED’s first listed pronunciation (although mine is more like the second).

  4. Yes, I had the same reaction.

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