Ohio Towns

03 October 2023, 11:18 PM

Steve Miller

Ohio Towns

Towns here have familiar names with unfamiliar pronunciations. I’m learning:

Berlin. BER-lin.

Milan. MY-lin

East Palestine. East Pal-ass-TEEN.

Lima. LIE-ma

Solon. SO-lun.

Medina. Me-DYN-a. (Funky cold Me-DYN-a?)

And I thought the Spanish names in CA were difficult!

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Life is short. Play with your dog.

03 October 2023, 11:24 PM

RealPlayer

I read a book by Helen Hooven Santmyer called “Ohio Town.” It was about her life in Xenia, Ohio, which I hear hardly exists anymore, as a tornado flattened it. I remember there was some beautiful prose in there.

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“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray

04 October 2023, 08:40 AM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by RealPlayer:
I read a book by Helen Hooven Santmyer called “Ohio Town.” It was about her life in Xenia, Ohio, which I hear hardly exists anymore, as a tornado flattened it. I remember there was some beautiful prose in there.

I read that book too! Found it just after we decided to move and I thought it was charming.

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Life is short. Play with your dog.

04 October 2023, 10:26 AM

Mikhailoh

Xenia is alive and well. I lived through that tornado as it went through my town first. We all left the pool hall and were out on the street to see it.

Xenia was hit hard. Since I went through it often, I saw the devastation the next day or so. Whole subdivisions with nothing left standing. Big old houses on Detroit Street with the walls and roof ripped off like a doll house, the beds in the rooms still made neatly.

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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch

04 October 2023, 10:28 AM

Mikhailoh

But Steve, wait until you encounter Mariemont, America's first planned community. It's a lovely area, like an English village.

But how to pronounce it.... is it MAREE-mont or MARYmont. The debate rages.

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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch

04 October 2023, 11:22 AM

Axtremus

quote:
Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
… Mariemont, America's first planned community. It's a lovely area, like an English village.

The name suggests some sort of French lineage (so I’d pronounce it as if it’s French), yet it’s “like an English village.” A bit of an identity crisis there.

EDIT: ok, found a picture on the Internet showing a plaque that says the village founder’s name was “Mary M. Emery,” and the town is supposedly named after her. Why the town is named “Mariemont” instead of “Marymont” is beyond me.

04 October 2023, 02:33 PM

Mikhailoh

Probably because it would sound more Catholic.

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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch

05 October 2023, 12:53 PM

big al

I grew up near the Ohio town of Cadiz - pronounced CAD-is.

That tendency toward pronunciation of place names different from their European antecedents is not confined to Ohio. Here in the same county I live in is a town named Versailles - verSALES. Lots of other examples on the landscape.

Big Al

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Why does everything have to be so complicated, all in the name of convenience. -ShiroKuro

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05 October 2023, 01:06 PM

Mikhailoh

We have one in Ohio too, pronounced the same way.

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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch