I personally don't know what the writer meant, but my catamite.

(Sorry.)

That's it! Marilyn, you're a genius! ><

Yes, it means "fish".

Oh, Meesthare, you don't really mean that!

Thanks Beachbum I grew up in Oregon.

My mother grew up in St. Louis and staunchly maintained that it was Missourah.

Relaford: I just reread your post. I had heard the one was from Boston and the other from Portland Maine and they flipped a coin to see whether it would be Boston or Portland

:-B

My four year old is fascinated with weather events, so I let her watch some of the tornado coverage on TV. We then got out a road atlas and I showed her where Florida was. She is still very concerned about you all down in "flow-dah."

TORNADO?? Can you tell we just moved to Oklahoma? I'm sorry, I meant hurricane, of course.

My interpretation is OR-uh-gun.

My mother was born in Houston, Missourah.

Easytraveler, I've always loved that GB Shaw spelling of fish. I recalled that illustration of how confusing English can be to a non-English speaker when I was in Ireland recently, trying to pronounce Irish Gaelic (which your new spelling of potato closely resembles).

Then there's Puyallup. Worcester. Any place called "Berlin," "Lima," "Beaufort," or "Newton/Newtown." And would someone PLEASE tell me why some Southerners I've met insist that the state where I was born is pronounced "Massa-TOO-sitts"? Had it been one person, I would have chalked it up to eccentricity, but there have been at least 5 people (one of whom actually corrected me when I named the state where I was grew up).

(Terrible grammar there - of course I meant "the state where I was grewn up'd."

>And would someone PLEASE tell me why some Southerners I've met insist that the state where I was born is pronounced "Massa-TOO-sitts"?<

You need to hang out with a higher caliber of people.

Do you really pronounce it Massa-choo-zits?

"Massa-CHOO-sits" or even "Massa-choo-s'ts." "Love that dirty wahtah......" (song, not political comment).

The only reason why I know it's pronounced will-A-mett (short "A") is because of all the Pinot I've been ordering and drinking lately.

"Massa-TOO-sitts" is a common pronunciation among Texans, even the educated ones. It absolutely drove me crazy when we lived there. I suspect they think the "choo" sound isn't refined enough!

I used to work with two guys from Missouri. The St. Louis one used "ee" and the Kansas City used "uh." Both claimed it was an east-west thing.

I thougnt it was Tax- a -choos-ets

Loretta Lynn is the queen of America and she has a song "Portland Oregon" on her new CD. However Loretta pronounces is it is how it's gonna be!

After living in Oregon (or-ee-gun) for my entire life and hearing people mispronounce it on a regular basis I am paranoid when I go to any other state. I won't say the names of places if possible until I hear a native pronounce the place names.

Wow, I don't think I've ever heard anyone pronounce the middle syllable of "Oregon" with the long "e" -- but now a couple of Oregonians (is that the right noun?) have said it is -- like "Orygun"?

(ed, your info is way out of date -- many many states now have higher tax rates in one form or another than Mass., including Oregon.)

I'm afraid that Oregon is being pronounced Or-uh-gun by the vast majority of 21st century Northwesterners, so it really doesn't matter how it was originally pronounced; language evolves, so relax! I had to laugh at this thread though!

Oh well, Cassandra that's the story of my life.

A one time Oregonian from Orygun :-B