Pronunciation (Spokane: living, airport, friendly)

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by rgb123

after visiting, I'd say the stress is more on the SPO than the can, and that actually makes it a little easier for me to say.

SPOcan

Nope, it's SpoCAN. Also sometimes called, mostly affectionately, Spokaloo...

[Arquebus]

I've heard the Spo-Cane pronunciation alot, but my brother-in-law was here from Australia a couple of months ago & he had a new one, to me at least.....just couldn't get him to stop pronouncing it Spock-ann. Drove me bananas!!

[rgb123]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

Nope, it's SpoCAN. Also sometimes called, mostly affectionately, Spokaloo...

nope, I've been listening really closely to radio and people....it's not as simple as SpoCAN.

Its a very strange pronunciation and you can hear it in the jewel song. There is a stress on the Spo but it's short, more like a SpaCan

[skinem]

With around 50 years association and residence in Spokane and area, I'd say SPO-can is more commonly heard...not that there's a great deal of difference between it and Spo-CAN as the two syllables are nearly even, with little emphasis on either.

Lindsey (original poster), Spokane is an easy Washington name to say. You need to try these towns or items on for size--Steilicoom, Puyallup, geoduck, Snoqualmie, Sequim, Chelan, Chewelah...shoot, even a simple one like Cheney has caused people problems...

[WendyK]

we can blame all this on the Native Americans. Even Spokane Falls Community College has a building named sn-w'ey'-mn, which I have not even attempted to get right

[mistyriver]

Spokompton.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by skinem

With around 50 years association and residence in Spokane and area, I'd say SPO-can is more commonly heard...not that there's a great deal of difference between it and Spo-CAN as the two syllables are nearly even, with little emphasis on either.

Lindsey (original poster), Spokane is an easy Washington name to say. You need to try these towns or items on for size--Steilicoom, Puyallup, geoduck, Snoqualmie, Sequim, Chelan, Chewelah...shoot, even a simple one like Cheney has caused people problems...

Here's help for two of them:

Seattle Mariners / Edgar & The Rookies on Vimeo

STILL-i-kum (CD blacks out the word I put at the end originally )
SNO-qual-ME
SQUIM
SH-lan
CHuh-WE-LUH
Chee-knee (rhymes with wienie, not like Dick Cheney).

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by skinem

With around 50 years association and residence in Spokane and area, I'd say SPO-can is more commonly heard...not that there's a great deal of difference between it and Spo-CAN as the two syllables are nearly even, with little emphasis on either.

Not that it really matters all that much as long as we don't say Spocaine , but I've been running the dialect through my head, and I still think if you ask somebody from Spk where they're from, they'll say SpoCAN, but within a sentence (such as "wanna go to the Spokane Falls?" or "Spokane Valley") the sentence cadence kicks in, and you'll hear SPOcan. But what do I know?--I've only visited every summer for 7 years...

[CuriousLindsey]

I could give you guys some Cajun towns to try to pronounce...but that would just be mean.

[skinem]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Chee-knee (rhymes with wienie, not like Dick Cheney).

I have Oregon relatives who had trouble with this word back in the '60s--they kept wanting to call it "she-ney".

For the last decade or more, it seems to get said a lot like our former VP's last name...and I then get accused of pronouncing his name wrong.