Wierd Wisconsin Words

I found this article while browsing the news this morning. I thought it was interesting, considering how I had complained a while ago about commercials that annoyed me, mentioning one for a check-cashing company that was obviously not a local company because of their hideous mispronunciation of city names. I admit we have some pretty strange pronunciations going on around here. We even make up new words for some things (bubbler, anyone?) Dialects are wonderful. Especially when they don’t make any sense.

“MILWAUKEE (AP) — There are just some Wisconsin-related words that people butcher: Chequamegon forest, Lake Butte des Morts, Lac Courte Oreilles tribe and even Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

So radio reporter Jackie Johnson decided she was tired of it and wanted to give newcomers, tourists and even natives a resource to find the correct pronunciation. She recently started the Web site http://misspronouncer.com.

"They can't be expected to know. It's not their fault," said Johnson, a capitol reporter for Wisconsin Radio Network. "But there is no where to go."

By the way, it's shee-WAM'-eh-gehn forest, Lake BEWD'-eh-moore, lak-COOT-o-ray tribe and Madison Mayor Dave ches-LEV'-ich.

Johnson, who has lived in Wisconsin most of her life, said she has worked in radio for years and was embarrassed when she mispronounced words and didn't know where to go to get it right.

The site has recordings of her pronouncing Wisconsin's 190 cities, 400 villages, and 1,260 towns. She also pronounces names of judges, famous Wisconsin people, like Brett Favre, state officials and legislators. She even recorded some of them pronouncing their own names.

"If they tell me the wrong pronunciation, it's not my fault," she said.”