You know you're from Michigan when you can pronounce Ypsilanti, Sault Ste. Marie and Traverse City correctly.
As WKAR's All Things Considered host, that was a big part of settling into the state. And luckily, I had some help.
Moving to Michigan to join the WKAR newsroom five years ago, I knew I'd never be considered a trusted news authority if I accidentally said Mackinac like it rhymed with "back" or Charlotte like it's said in North Carolina.
Thankfully, I had the help of my colleagues and one state website to give me a leg up.
It's called "You Say It How in Michigan?" and it's found through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
So, if I ever forget if Leelanau is pronounced like it rhymes with "gnaw" or "now" in the middle of my show, it's a simple search to check.
There are hundreds of entries of place names and even some notable Michiganders like Smokey Robinson, Gilda Radner and Madonna.
Is it weird to say I even have a favorite place pronunciation? Oscoda just sounds so Michigan.
I wanted to know why this tool existed, which brought me to the Braille and Talking Book Library at the Library of Michigan in Lansing.
"We provide services to people who have print disabilities, so they're unable to use standard size print," explained Reader Advisory Librarian Betsie Branch.
Branch says those services include creating recordings of books and magazines for people who are blind or have low vision.
About 10 years ago, Branch and her team would often have to field questions from their volunteer audiobook readers about how to say Michigan place names.
"There were a lot of people who would tell me that we were pronouncing things incorrectly," she said.
So, she had one of her student employees at the time, Adrienne Schafer, start to compile a list of place names.
"It probably took me a couple months, I would say, to put together the list, reaching out to local libraries or city hall or wherever it might be to make sure I got the pronunciation right," Schafer said.
That list grew to have around 1,200 entries that she needed to record.
"It was a little it was a little taxing at first, but it was fun," Schafer said. "It was fun to see all the different places."
That doesn't mean she got everything right the first go like a town that looked like it was pronounced like the ancient Roman city Pompeii.
"The first time that it went out, we had so many messages that were like, 'No, it's pom-pee-EYE. It's pom-pee-EYE.' And I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, who would have thought?'"
Michigan State University history professor Roger Rosentreter explains having tricky place names isn't particularly unique to Michigan, but they do tell a story about the state's history.
From immigrant's homelands like Frankenmuth and Westphalia to important historic sites like Alamo and Lexington, people settling in the state took it as an opportunity to stake a claim.
"The early pioneers chose to say, 'Okay I've purchased this chunk of real estate. I own this, and I'm going to name it,'" he said.
Some Indigenous place names did stick like Okemos and Mackinac. Others were invented by 19th century geographer Henry Schoolcraft who used syllables from Indigenous languages as well as Latin and Arabic.
"He did a lot of counties, in particular, Alcona ... Allegan, and the list goes on from there, Kalkaska, he made it up," Rosentreter said.
There are even more creative ways people came up with names for places, like the eight men who took each of their initials to dub a town called Germfask in the Upper Peninsula.
Now that I've been here for five years, I don't need to use the "You Say It How in Michigan?" website as often I once did, which means I have more time to ask why is it said like that Michigan, because trust me, there are endless more unique origin stories for the communities we call home.
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