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State website offers definitive pronounciation guide

Look at a map anywhere in the country and you’re likely to find some names you’re not sure how to pronounce. It’s humbling when you try your best and still don’t get it right. But no one needs to feel that kind of distress in Michigan. That’s because a state website explains how to pronounce just about any place in both peninsulas. As Sehvilla Mann reports, the guide also covers notable people and food.

Traffic is bustling on a late afternoon in this small Southwest Michigan town.

"The biggest one that we hear and I hear it all the time is Dowa-gee-ac"

"Dowag-ee-ac, yeah. Yeah, I hear that one a lot."

That’s Steve Arseneau and Keith Leighton in the City of Dowagiac.

"Usually doctor’s offices when you give them the area code and then they punch it in they go ‘Ok now tell me the name of the city’ (they want you to say it so they don’t get it wrong) mmm-hmm yeah."

"I always hear Dowag-ee-ac. Like, lose the I. (People put in an extra I) Well there is an I there. They just don’t know to ignore it."

And that’s Debbie Rohdy and David Hollister in the city spelled D-O-W-A-G-I-A-C. Dowagiac is one of close to 2000 entries in a guide called “You Say It How in Michigan?” It’s a project of Michigan’s Braille and Talking Book Library, where, librarian Betsie Branch explains, volunteers record books for people who can’t use standard print. Branch says that includes books set in the state.

"So a lot of those materials have Michigan place names that aren’t always so easy to pronounce..."

Branch says she looked for a guide, but couldn’t find one.

"So I said let’s make our own."

Branch says making the guide public was the easiest way to get it to the talking book library’s volunteers. But that also means it’s there for anyone in the world who’s stumped by a Michigan place name. If the guide doesn’t cover every community, it must come close. Branch says that as she researched, she came across town’s she’d never heard of.

"A lot of them are so small that they probably won’t be printed in a book that we’re going to record."

But she put them in anyway.

"Maybe that’s the librarian in me just wanting to be complete and have it all included."

Audio files let users hear the name, not just read it. The first place in the list is a rural township in northern Lower Michigan…

"Acme…"

The last is a city in Saginaw County.

"Zilwaukee…"

Yes, that’s Zilwaukee, like Milwaukee except with a Z. Some famous Michiganders get a nod, among them

"Aretha Franklin…"

And

"Derek Jeter…"

There’s also an entry for the card game euchre and, as librarian Betsie Branch explains, a favorite baked good spelled p-a-s-t-y.

"Don’t say pastie, don’t say pastry it’s definitely pasty."

The guide gives two correct pronunciations for Michigan’s biggest city.

"People in other parts of the state say Deh-troit - you know, Deh-troit, and people around the Detroit area say Dee-troit."

Talking book readers can take their pick. After the guide launched about two and a half years ago, the library amended a couple of entries where, it turned out, it got the name wrong. As the Morning Sun of Alma (AL-ma) reported, a community in Isabella County that looks on paper like WIDE-man is actually pronounced WADE-man. And in Gratiot County, a tiny town that’s spelled like the ancient city of Pompeii is pronounced POMP-ee-eye.

Jen Coleman says she’s lived in Pompeii for thirty years. She hadn’t heard about the “You say it how in Michigan?” guide. But she thinks it’ll come in handy for more than just Pompeii.

"I still laugh when I hear people say Shar-LOAT Michigan or Oh-kee-mos…"

Because it’s supposed to be Shar-LOT and OH-ke-mis. 

"…And a lot of them up north, you know Sault Sainte Marie I’m sure is on there and even Mackinac I’m sure is on there"

Mackinac with that tricky “c” on the end is definitely on the list.