Where did you say I am?

Oregon has some tricky place names—or names I didn’t know were tricky until I learned how the locals pronounce them.

Part of my problem is after a couple of decades living in California and then traveling around the Southwest and Mexico, I tend to test unfamiliar words by applying Spanish pronunciation rules. But most of the tricky names in Oregon are anglicized Native America names. And some are… I don’t know what. But not Spanish. And there seem to be no consistent rules. It would be helpful if the Welcome to ____________ signs included phonetic spellings.

Luckily, I came across an article on The Oregonian site featuring audio clips of how to pronounce various names. Thanks to them I learned:

Nehalem is Nuh-HAY-lum  

Yachats is YA-hots (with a short A, as in cat) 

Heceta Head is Huh-KEE-tuh Head

Umatilla is YOU-muh-TIL-uh  

Philomath is Fil-O-muth 

Yaquina is Yuh-KWIN-uh  

Champoeg is Sham-POO-ee

See what I mean? It’s as if the rule is to imagine the most incorrect way to say a name, and that’s the correct way. So I propose new pronunciations for some other Oregonian names.

Portland – Portal-AINED  

Eugene – EH-yug-EN-ee 

Salem – Saw-LUM 

Corvallis – Cor-vale-EEZ 

Astoria – ASS-toh-REE-uh

I’m certain those will catch on quickly.