Originally published at: Welcome to Louisiana. Can you pronounce words such as "Natchitoches" and "Atchafalaya"? | Boing Boing
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I’m also from Louisiana (Baton Rouge) and I loved saying all these words and more when I was little. That “TCH” combo just slays me. Weirdly, it’s pronounced differently in Natchitoches than in the other Caddo-origin words.
“Tangipahoa” is another good one.
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I like asking NOLA residents to pronounce “Calliope.”
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Tchoupitoulas, y’all.
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Saskatchewan (Cree origin).
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For the folk in Texas, Natchitoches is a tough one, because there is town in East Texas called Nacogdoches pronounced VERY differently. Both are really nice places to have a picnic lunch, though.
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Now I want a Biker Jacket that reads “Tchoupicabras” with an illustration of a goatsucker at Mardis Gras. I’d settle for a T-Shirt.
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I was reading a book set in Australia, and thinking how strange the place names sounded. The I realized that some of the place names in the US probably sound equally as strange.
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The street and housing project (kally-Op, pronouncing the ‘p’ is optional) are not pronounced at all like the musical instrument
Melpomene (melpa - meen) street and projects is similar
and Burgundy street has a strong stress on the second syllable, unlike the wine
And that doesn’t get to the crazy street prononciations like Clio st. (pronounced C.L. 10)
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I had to turn to my partner and ask about Natchitoches.
When he pronounced it I went “oh nack-o-dish”
It’s something I’ve said out loud a million times but never had to spell.
The times I’ve had to write down Tchoupitoulas were always harrowing. I can never remember where to even start to look up the correct spelling. "No spryte that don’t start with a “c” darlin’ "
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Anyone else find it weird that he’s using a bayonet as a pointer?
I wonder how he would pronounce bayonet
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oh! oh! i betchu it goes like this right he-yah:
“bye-O-nay”
i spent 2 years on assignment in NOLA. major construction project. the outdoor privies had the brand name Port-O-Let.
to this very day, i use the pronunciation “port-O-lay”. the confused looks i get remind me that is not common.
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Now have this guy challenge his friend to pronounce Buffalo area words like:
Scajaquada
Cheektowaga
Tonawanda
Irondequoit
Instead of French, it’s a bunch of Native American.
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They wild!
Greek Muse or NOLA street name
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All the Greek Muses have streets. Unsurprisingly the area is know as the muses. Heading uptown from Harmony Circle (formerly Lee circle) there’s Calliope, Clio, Erato, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, and Urania.
And we manage to butcher the pronounciations pretty good for most
and since Tchoupitoulas intersects a couple of them:
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Most of the words are French and must derive from Cajun French. I saw a YouTube video where a French visitor – a native of metropolitan France – spoke with a old Cajun couple in French. They understood each other pretty well.
Most of the words here (Atchafalaya, Tchoupitoulas, Natchitoches, Tchefuncte, Opelousas) are indigenous words without connection to french.
And cajun french and France french are very different; like the difference between green beans and zydeco
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When my grandpa tried to speak to a Parisian french speaker they had quite a hard time understanding each other.
The two languages have had pretty different vowel shifts. Cajun french has a slow drawl much like southern American English. Parisian french is so fast.
My former sis-in-law, a noted SciFi writer from Los Angeles, married a prominent author from NOLA (that’s No’leens to yez Yanky furriners). Most of the Hugo statues sitting on their shelves were for his stories. After a year in NOLA, she started sounding funny to my California ears. I blame the cuisine. 
