Weirdly Wonderful Washington Words

I've lived in several places where the towns take their names from Native American words, but WA State takes the cake for having the most tongue twisting names. It took a few months to learn how to say them correctly, and I still make mistakes (my pronunciation of "Willamette" caused my bosses to collapse in laughter). To this day, my mom still hasn't grasped the correct pronunciation of "Puyallup". Everyone takes one look at that word and says, "Pulley Up". It's especially amusing to hear sports announcers try and say it when mentioning a player's hometown; it gets mangled every time. Puyallup: Pew-AL-up

WE have two towns that have especially amusing names. I've often said that it's too bad they weren't right next to each other so that the highway exit sign could read: "Humptulips Tillicum". Yes, those really are town names. Humptulips is a teeny tiny town on the Olympic Peninsula, and Tillicum is south of Tacoma, near Ft. Lewis & McChord AFB.

Here are some more of my favourite towns, rivers, Indian tribes, etc. You can figure out how to say them if you read them slow enough.

Snohomish

Ilwaco (il-WAH-co)

Skokomish

Onalaska

Skykomish

Steilacoom (STELL-a-cum)

Stillaguamish

Tieton

Snoqualmie

Okanogan

Sequim ("Skwim")

Wenatchee

Hoquiam (HO-kwee-yum)

Toppenish

Stehekin (sta-HEE-kin)

Sekiu (C-Q; or SEE-kyoo)

Semiahmoo

Quillayute, also spelled Quileute

Chimacum

Tulalip (too-LAY-lip)

Issaquah

Sammamish

Enumclaw

Anacortes (anna-CORT-iss)

Swinomish

Dosewallips (DOE-see-wahl-ips)

and lest we forget our gigantic bivalves harvested along the Hood Canal, the "Geoduck", which is pronounced "GOOEY-duck."