Well, that lead in seems a bit harsh, right? Especially since most Mississippians don't know how to pronounce some of these. Myself, being of thirty eight years, having been born and raised in this state, it's unfair to say I shouldn't be trusted because, I myself, don't know how to pronounce some of these. What I don't know how to pronounce stems from the town being relatively small (so not mentioned a lot by other Mississippians) and or is far away from me in some other area of the state. I wouldn't expect a Mississippian from the far north to know how to pronounce words down here if they were a small town that was not a holiday destination. Now while I do know the correct (read: French) pronunciations of some Mississippi places, I am well aware that is a language of conquerers and has been changed over the long years to something more Mississippian and that's OK. I don't correct people on the French pronunciation, but I like knowing it. The Choctaw words, however, since they from a language and people that are native to this area (and are still here - The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians), I feel should be pronounced the Choctaw ways and nothing less. And is why I say that most Mississippians aren't pronouncing some words correctly. So, we'll just go down the list, right? (in green). I'll throw in one of two not on the list, because they are fun (in orange). Gautier - This is a French term, and as such was originally pronounced goh-tee-yeh, but is now pronounced as go-shay. D'Iberville - Not on the list and this is also a French term (The French were all up in the coastal regions here, not just in New Orleans and Louisiana) originally pronounced digh-burr-vee, but is now pronounced as dee-eye-bur-ville. Pascagoula - This is a term pertaining to the Pascagoula Tribe that was mistranslated, misunderstood, Frenchified by the French back in the late 1600s. It was a term for this tribe from other tribes. There are no records of their language and the language is no longer spoken. Most were killed off by Europeans or were absorbed into other tribes such as the Biloxi or the Choctaw. So, this one can't technically go by it's original roots as they aren't really known. The pronunciation is pass-kuh-ghoul-uh. Kosciusko - This is a Polish term, really a surname of the Revolutionary War general Tadeusz Kościuszko. It was originally pronounced as kahs-kee-ahsk-oh, but is now pronounced as kah-zee-ess-koh. Tishomingo - This is a Chickasaw word meaning assistant king, as it was the name of one of their leaders, originally tishu-minku. He was the last full-blooded Chickasaw leader and served in various early American wars until is death of smallpox in 1838, in Arkansas, while on the Trail of Tears. It is now pronounced tish-uh-meen-go. Chickasawhay - This is the one that no one really knows how to pronounce. I have asked several people; white Mississippians, other white people, black people, and Choctaw people. They all take a stab at it, but no one seems to really know for sure and they just trip over it. It is originally a Choctaw word meaning Chickasaw potato and was probably pronounced chickashsha-ahi, but I think now the consensus is chick-uh-saw-hay or even chick-uh-sway, or ya know if the people aren't scratching their heads or stumbling over it. Yalbousha - I have never even heard of this place, so apparently I'm completely untrustworthy, right!? But then I can't be too hard on myself, because who ever cobbled that list together left out an O. There is no such place in Mississippi as Yalbousha, however there is a Yalobousha county up farther north in which the town of Water Valley is to be found. They simply state that it is an old Native American word meaning tadpole place and give no indication of which tribe specifically or of its etymology though they do say that the Choctaw and Chickasaw once lived in the region. I'll take a stab that it is yowl-oh-boosh-uh. Louisville - I had never heard of this place until I started visiting a friend who lives near there. It's lewis-ville, and not as one "true" Mississippian claimed on one such of these lists that it was lewis-vuhl. My friend has lived there all of her life and she should know how it's pronounced, so I'm sticking with ville. Nanih Waiya - This I didn't know of either, until meeting my friend and going to visit her a lot. It bears repeating that she is Choctaw and thus is more of an expert on all things pertaining to that tribe than that of her white Mississippi counterparts. This is their place. The mound where they emerged from the Earth and the cave where the ancient ancestor spirits reside. I don't know how most Mississippians pronounce this, but I'm sure it's twangy and not original. She pronounced it was nun-ey wai-yuh, so that is how it should be pronounced. Yockanookany - I've never heard of this place either. It's a river nowhere near me. No one wishes to discuss which tribe this name hails from, just stating Native American, but the only reference to its pronunciation that I can find is from an Only In Your State article which places it as yock-ah-nook-ahnee. Sounds good to me, though I have no idea if it's really correct. It is fun to say though! Bogue Chitto - This word I know all too well. This is a river that runs near me. I've heard it the very wrong, southern way my entire life; that of bo-GUH chih-DUH; the slow cadence rises and falls like a wave. After meeting my friend, she laughed at the absurdity because in the original Choctaw its much more clipped; boke chitt-oh. It means big (chitto) creek or water (bogue). You also have Lake Bogue Homa (sometimes spelled homo - boke hou-mah); Red Water. You can also see in the state the mixing of the two as in homa or homo chitto. This made my friend laugh because homo begins homosexual and they don't have a word for that (homosexual or gay), so white people have just make it big gay road (because in this instance she'd seen Homo Chitto Road), but probably should have been big red road, do you see? Tchoutacabouffa - Never heard of it until today. This is, again, a river and is actually near me on the coast, though I've never heard of it. The Only In Your State article gives the pronunciation of choo-tah-kah-buh-fuh, but a different site gives all the approval to the pronunciation of choo-tah-kah-buf. You can take your pick, because I honestly don't and there's not enough out there to garner a true guess. Apparently it's a Biloxi tribe word meaning broken pot. The Biloxi are still around and joined forces long ago with other tribes and are now The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe over in Louisiana. Their language as been extinct since the 1930s, meaning no one uses it and no one is sure how to use it (meaning pronunciation of words), so there is no telling. Buckatunna - Though it's near me, it's not a place I've come to a lot or heard a lot of. It's really, really tiny. It's a town near Alabama, taking its name from the nearby Buckatunna Creek. An article states that it is "an old Choctaw word meaning a creek where there is weaving." Further investigation yields excerpts from a 2004 book by William Bright, Native American Placenames of The United States. BUCATUNNA (Miss., Clarke Co.) \buk e tun' e\. Perhaps Choctaw (Muskogean) book 'river', ittanaha 'to meet, gather' (P. Munro p.c.). The name is also written Buckatunna (Miss., Wayne Co.; Ala., Choctaw Co.). BUCKATUNNA (Miss., Wayne Co.; Ala., Choctaw Co.) \buk e tun' e\. The name was written in 1764 as <Bacatune> and in 1772 as <Bogue-aithee-Tanne>. It perhaps represents a Choctaw (Muskogean) phrase, 'stream where baskets are woven' (Read 1984); a modern transcription is book aatana, containing book 'stream' and tana 'to weave' (P. Munro p.c.). The name is also written Bucatunna (Miss., Clarke Co.). I suppose I'm inclined to agree with the guy who is quoted in the 2014 article by the local news source. Does this tell me how Buckatunna should be pronounced? Yes, and no. I'm good with etymology and writing out words so that one understands how they are said, but I am not good with the fancy fiddly-doo of etymological ways; upside down vowels and symbols. So, to me up there "buk (upside down e) tun' (upside down e) is just jargon and tells me nothing. I'm going to say buck-uh-tun-nuh, as it's pretty much how I've heard it said. Is that actually correct? For Mississippi or for the Choctaw? I don't know. Shuqualak - This is something I've read in recent years because people want to talk about strange place names, but I've never actually heard how people pronounce it and I don't know where it is. Mississippians apparently pronounce this as sugar-lock. It's really only stated that is Choctaw in origin, but not of the original word, spelling, or pronunciation. I did find another excerpt from another book; Native American Place Names in Mississippi by Keith A. Baca Shuqualak (SHUG-uh-lock, SHOOG-ur-lock) Town (founded 1857) in S Noxubee County (q.v.). The most credible solution is that the name is from Choctaw shikvilla, "beads:. Halbert (1899, pp. 75-76) states that [a] tradition exists that once in ancient times, during a war between the Choctaws and Creeks, some of the former went over to the Creeks Then it actually states "Page 95 is not part of this book preview". Seriously? It jumps from page 94 to page 96 with that rude dismissal in between and I want to know what Halbert states in his book. Jiminy Crickets that's annoying. But it's the only reference to an actual word of Indigenous origin. So, if it's to be believed then it should be shik villa and I'm not sure at all if that's a correct Choctaw pronunciation, but it seems that the Mississippian pronunciation could be either of the variations supplied by Baca. Noxubee - Shuqualak is in Noxubee county, as stated above, and since it's not an easy pronunciation by European standards, I'll include it since it wasn't included., and I woudn't know of this county except my friend drove me through it to get to Lewisville on that one trip. According to Mississippians it's an old Choctaw word meaning to stink and is pronounced as nak-sho-bi. I honestly can't remember how my friend pronounced it, because of course I asked because it was a new and strange word to me and I love knowing things like this. I know that it was not nox-uh-bee as I was wanting to pronounce it. I can't find any other information to lead me on other paths to prove or disprove any of this. No locals saying the word, no documentation of Choctaws (or other tribes) using the word, or it's root and origin. Oktibbeha - This is a county and I didn't know of it until I traveled to Starkville once. But most Mississippians, if they don't live there, do travel there, because it's the home of Mississippi State University and people love them some college football. It apparently is an old Native American term meaning bloody water or icy creek, though they all neglect to mention which particular tribe. I'm hearing and seeing people pronounce it as oke-tib-beh-haw, which is what I thought when I saw it on the license plates up there, but I know that the local pronounced it otherwise, but I can't remember exactly how he pronounced it. It's like one of those words, where the different inflection makes it sound slightly different, but you can tell it's the same word. Almost like Hermione in Harry Potter saying it's Levi-OH-SUH not LEVI-oh-suh. I can't think of any other examples except may Seiver county in Tennessee. See-ver vs severe. or car-burr-ray-turr vs car-bor-rhet-uh. Perhaps that's a better example of that type of word. Belzoni - Watched a documentary a few years back, subSIPPI, which is about subcultures within the state. The natives of Belzoni pronounced the town as bell-zone-ee. However, I am led to believe by others who write about it that it's actually pronounced bell-zone-uh. So, whose correct? I'm inclined to lean towards the people interviewed in the documentary who are from there, and their ancestors are from there. You may know it as the Catfish Capital of the World or the very sad place where Civil Rights activist Reverend George Lee was murdered. But in a strange turn of events, the town lends its name to a 19th century Italian archaeologist and explorer; Signori Giovanni Battista Belzoni. In Italian his surname would be pronounced bell-zohn-ee and is much closer to bell-zone-ee than than with the ending of uh. Byhalia - This is a small town in northern Mississippi close to the border of Tennessee. We ended up driving through it in our round-about way to get to Horn Lake to visit friends. We didn't know how it was pronounced and thus said to our friend that we'd driven through buh-hah-lee-uh; making it almost akin to Valhalla in sound; basically long, and not short, A's. She looked confused and then asked, "bye-hale-yuh?" We told her how it was spelled and she said, "Yep, bye-hale-yuh like Byhalia and Tire - they're commercials they've always played..." We were making it way too proper. We visited the nearby Natchez a lot during my life to see family and I think that's where fancy place names come in. Still makes me laugh. Pass Christian - Growing up near the Gulf Coast (and spending a lot of time there) I do know that it is pass chris-chee-yan and not pass chrischin. It was named for a French-Canadian in the mid 1700s by the name of Nicholas Christian L'Adnier. Christian in French is pronounced chris-chee-yen, and the modern day pronunciation is not far off. Hattiesburg - We'll end with this one. This is my hometown and has been featured on Jeopardy twice, most recently just a few days ago. It makes the list for that reason, as well as people mispronouncing it. Some lumber guy, Captain William Harris Hardy, is reported to have founded Hattiesburg as a lumber site. He named the town after his wife Hattie and later people named the main thoroughfaire, Hardy Street, in honour of him. I say reportedly, because there's really not much to learn about him or his wife or the very early days of this town. It is pronounced Had-ees-burg, by most people, but others will pronounce the T's as in Hat-tees-burg. When Khols built here and started airing commercials for the locals, they were stating to visit your new hay-dees-burg Khols. Hattiesburgians (which we voted recently and we're Hattiesburgers, but I didn't vote for that moniker and don't like it) were pretty upset because we're not hay-dees like the Greek hell world. When researching this article, and for a different place name, I stumbled upon a list by MS Genealogy, stating place names and origins, etc. I was aghast. So aghast, in fact, that I had to take a screen shot of it! Here is a Mississippi website, trying to tell you factual information about places in Mississippi, and they can't even get the county of Hattiesburg correct. How much else have they gotten wrong? Hattiesburg is in Forrest County, which is named for some Confederate general. Forrest County is in between Lamar County (where I live and where West Hattiesburg resides) to the west and Perry County to the East. Here, see? Pretty much that crook indention at Lamar and Forrest Counties is Hattiesburg (and West Hattiesburg. A far cry form the borders of Perry County. I still would have been a little upset (because it is not at all factual) if they'd said Hattiesburg was in Lamar County. Part of it is, so I could have seen the confusion. But our city is on the opposite side of Forrest County to Perry and it's an erroneous mistake.
My final reason for listing Hattiesburg is that it is the only one in the entire world. That is according to Geotargit, but I bet they're not wrong.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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