In 2008, when I walked from the US-Canada border to Blaine, Washington, and beyond, I encountered a lot of native and non-native city and town names, each with its own idiosyncratic pronunciation. Twisted pronunciations might be annoying, but they're a good way to know who's local and who isn't. From my part of the country: how do you pronounce Appalachian? Is it leytch or latch? Technically, either is fine, and personally, I've said leytch all my life, but if you're from around there, you know that everyone says latch. When I was out west, one region close to Blaine was called Semiahmoo. I thought it was pronounced suh-MIGH-uh-moo, but the locals corrected me: seh-mee-AH-moo. I also saw a French-looking city name as I passed through: Touchet. Knowing French as I do, I pronounced it too-SHEY, but the locals said no: it's TOO-shee. Made me think of a hick trying and failing to pronounce tushie. And that's how I betrayed myself.
Ohio, I just discovered, has its own set of fucked-up names:
Chillicothe
Scioto (river)
Olentangy (river, tributary to the Scioto)
I dare you to pronounce those. (Pronunciations are all on Wikipedia.)
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