Every state has a litmus test of sorts to help figure out who’s a lifer and who might be new to town. But unlucky for new Wisconsinites, our landscape is positively riddled with pronunciation potholes. Just when you think you’ve mastered the Oconomowocs and Weyauwegas of the state, along comes Rio and Muscoda to throw a wrench in everything. A jumble of Native American words that were translated or misunderstood by the French and then Anglicized, the Dairy State is chock full of tough-to-pronounce words. Heck, places like Racine have populations split on how to pronounce it, so how are the rest of us supposed to figure it out? Regardless, if you scan this list and think “piece of cake” then you’ve probably spend way too many years in Wisconsin:
We'll start with an easy one. Though we think brats should be universal, it turns out there are plenty of folks who want to pronounce this like a naughty child. For once, this one isn't about a nasally "A." It's braht-worst.
Ok, maybe this one isn't a much about pronunciation as it is about recognition. Did you almost run into someone turning the corner at a grocery store? Was there a sudden stop on the sidewalk you had to avoid? Did you bump into someone in line for the bathroom? If you're from Wisconsin, odds are you said "ope," which is a mixture of a sound of surprise and our way of saying "sorry, excuse me."
Here's where the nasal Wisconsin accent comes out in full force. How many y's do you add to your pronunciation of bag or bagel. There's probably a formula that correlates that to how many year you've lived here. If you say these words and the originate in your sinuses and it sounds like you're saying bayg or bayyyyyygel, you're from Wisconsin.
I said this getting out of a chair at work this week completely unironically. Folks like to think this is only a Minnesota work/phrase because of its Norwegian roots, but those folks settled here,too and this, like "ope" comes out without us really even realizing.
Honestly, probably the toughest of all the Wisconsin city names. If you can nail Oconomowoc, you probably won't be tested again. This one doesn't seem that hard to those of us that say it regularly, but something about all those O's really throws folks for a loop. It's Oh-Cahn-Oh-Moe-Walk.
It probably doesn't help that American English has no verifiable, hard-and-fast pronunciation rules. This one is said just as it looks. Meh-nom-oh-knee. But most folks have no idea where to put the accent or divide the syllables.
Spelled different. Pronounced the same. Small divergences in spelling seem like they'd be common when we're talking about a minimum of two translations before it got to the form we know today, but the fact that this looks different than the town up north makes people think they should be pronounced differently.
Just when you think you might be getting the hand of this, Muscoda comes along. Mus-koh-day. Yup. Say it fast and mash it all together and you get Muscoda.
Maybe it's the way we mush all the syllables so there's not really anything accented much that makes it difficult. Here, the "boy" is slightly harsher, but not much. "Sheh-boy-gahn"
This one's riddled with pitfalls. It doesn't help that other states/areas use the more harshly pronounced "Nicollet." Here, it's "Nick-oh-lay." No t sound. Chequamegon goes "Cheh-qwa-meh-gahn." Usually it's a hard "Cheh" with that ch, but some people will smooth it out with a "Sheh" to start it.
There are folks who live there who insist it's pronounced "Ray-seen" but the more common and widely used verson is "Ruh-seen." Every time I watch "A League of Their Own" I cringe a bit at the little girls saying "Ray-seen" to Kit at the end.
You'd think the state name itself would be rather straightforward, but we've heard every possible variation. But rest assured, it's not "WESconsin" or "WESTconsin." When you've said WISCONSIN you've said it all.
What words throw you for a loop? Which ones do you still hear people getting wrong, year after year. Let us know in the comments!
