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How to say "Oregon"

It's "OAR-rih-gun." Pure and simple. Say it any other way -- like "ORE-gahwn," perhaps -- and you brand yourself as an Easterner. Or even worse, a Californian.

There are a few other tricky place names in the state. "Willamette" looks easy -- that's the name of the main south-to-north running river in the western valley, oddly enough called the Willamette Valley, which has most of the state's population. And most newcomers pronounce it "WILL-a-mette," the way it's spelled. Sorry. It's "Wih-LAH-mit. Rhymes with "dammit."

Yaquina Head on the coast is "Yah-KWI-nah." Heceta Head is "He-SEE-tah." Head is "HED."

And no one actually knows how Champoeg Park is pronounced. .

all text and images © 2005-06 by Bob Keefer
no reproduction allowed in any form without written permission