Breaking news:
September 2, 2020 heard on the street: The national news is reporting unrest in KEN-ush-a. Oh my.
Say Rio like this: ree-oh. It’s pronounced rye-oh
Say Antigo like this: an-tee´-goh instead of an´-ti-go
Pronounce the q in Chequamegon, The word should kind of melts in your mouth, you know?
tray-goh. Nope. It’s tree-goh. And spelled Trego. Not spaghetti sauce
Say trip´-oh-lee instead of trip´-oh-lye for Tripoli. This is Wisconsin, not Libya
Say mug-wahn-uh-go instead of muk-wahn-uh-go. Note the K in Mukwonago. Sorry. No G in that first syllable. If I hear it from you again, I’ll start ignoring you.
Course if you’re from Milwaukee, you never use the L. mwau´-kee. 2 syllables. Only outsiders say the L in Milwaukee
Prounounce Shawano = shaw-wahn´-noh. Nope. 2 syllables. shaw´-noh
Eee-clare. Although there are eclairs in Eau Claire.
Just north of Eau Claire is Chip-wah Falls. People from Chippewa seldom say ew. Say chip-eew-wah enough times, you’ll likely get a pop in the nose.
If you’re not originally from Wisconsin, don’t even attempt Lac Courte Oreilles, which names a lake, a People, a town and a lot of other things. Just say LCO. It’s easier. If you’re looking to drive your favorite Wisconsinite nuts, just make an attempt at all those R’s and E’s and L’s and see what happens.
Bohners Lake has been so contentious that real estate people actually pronounce it wrong when trying to sell property there. There’s an obvious reason for this.
Careful of the people of Lodi. They’re pretty touchy about hearing load-ee.
Add a spare syllable to Weyerhaeuser sort of like why-er-houz-er and you won’t be too popular. ware´-houz-er
I’ve tripped over how-gen more than once and been corrected. haw-gen for Haugen.
Oulu. And you thought I was making these up. Not owl-loo. Just oo-loo.
poh-kee-gam´-a would certainly drive us nuts. It’s poh-keg´-e-mah
We really like confusion, so we pronounce the X in Crex Meadows, but leave it out of St. Croix Falls.
Tree´-ver is a good one, too. Just try saying Trevor with a short E and see what happens.
You could always put the accents on the wrong syllables like this: