In a message dated 2/18/2005 10:33:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, Louann Miller <louann at millerdome.com> writes: >At 10:28 AM 2/18/2005 -0500, Steve Simmons wrote: >>While I agree with Joses note as a whole, I do want to point out that >>populations tend to grab foreign place names and make them their own. >>Thus we have Versailles (ver-SALES) Indiana, Milan (MI-lan) Michigan, >>Amarillo (AM-uh-RILL-o) Texas, and Canton (CAN-tun) Michigan. I don't >>know about Amarillo, but the other three were based on locals picking >>names of places they're read of, but not heard pronounced. Four languages, >>four horrid pronunciations (Canton MI is after Canton China, not the >>political subdivisions of Switzerland). > >Don't forget PAL-us-teen Texas (spelled Palestine) and the battle of San >Jacinto, with a J. Although the latter may be justified on the grounds that >whoever wins the battle gets to name it. > >Louann, with some exposure to Spanglish. > > And there's places like Woosta (figure out how that's really spelled... Mass people should be able to get this one). -C >