Eh...we have to remember he Louisiana Territory transferred back and forth between France and Spain (finally with France just before the Louisiana Purchase). Predominantly French place names, particularly in the South, with a smattering of Spanish and Choctaw thrown in.
Yeppers, the Louisiana Purchase from the French...what I mean is the final transfer of the territory was from the French. Was it Thomas Jefferson that did that transaction?
As a true cajun, raised near Chataignier, here are the best pronunciations: Chataingier: Shu-TAN-yuh. Also can be pronounced SHA-ten-YAY depending on which region you are in. Champagnolle: SHOM-pan-yole Hebert: AY-bear (this is a last name, not a city) Gautier: GO-chay or GO-SHAY Thibodaux: TIB-uh-dough Ouachita: WATCH-it-taw Atchafalaya: uh-CHA-fu-LIE-uh
Look up the Atchafalaya Basin. It's the largest wetland swamp in the U.S. The Atchafalaya River flows in to it and the swamp ultimately flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It's a beautiful place to visit with the vast wetlands, cypress trees with Spanish moss, alligators and many other species of wildlife.
No doubt. If you watch football, you probably heard of Clemson University's second strimg quarterback - Uiagaleilei. It took many of us several attempts to wrap our Southern accents around that name!
Where I'm from (Pennsylvania), there are a lot of Native American place names: Susquehanna, Chillisquaque, Conshohocken, Manayunk, Shamokin, Wapwallopen, Tunkhannock, Lackawanna... New York has a lot too!
Lia is ignorant to American history.She doesn't get that many Europeans came over to America and that you have people here from every ethnic group.Remember when she doubted that Irish descendents were in America.She thought people here were just making that up.lol
@@Kim-427 Honestly, Lia is as ignorant of European history, as she is of American history. If she knows what century the Napoleonic wars took place in, I"ll eat my hat.
Stop the hate. History does not require "a lot of memory", History is more analysis(I mean History was learned only using the memory and "the memory" in our lifes is not relevant).
@@jonadabtheunsightly Lia, and to a lesser extent Joel, is one of those young people who lives in a more or less relatively idyllic culture where she has had to worry about almost nothing in life and nothing in her life has forced her to have no choice but to be aware of history and current events and general things going on in the world, if their videos are any indication. Joel seems just a tiny bit more naturally interested, but a lot of non-Americans their age seem to live in kind of a blissful state of never needing to know anything important outside their own personal lives as a matter of course for their daily lives.
@@mmc51660 in Missouri we have Cuba, Nevada, Paris, and many more names of other places! But Nevada is not said like the state name! They say it as if it was NayVada!
Im from South Carolina , and we have a few funny place names here . 96 City , Sugar Tit , Bucklick , Burns Down , Wide Awake, Dog Bluff , Fair Play , Fingerville , No Mans Land , Happy Bottom , Happytown , Hurl Rocks , Ketchuptown , Climax , Frogmore , Little Chicago , Little Africa , and Cowpens .
I'm from Alabama and can't even imagine how you could mispronounce Wedowee. Then again I think Opelika, Lafayette, and Mobile all have completely normal pronunciations.
Good on you Joel! You have been paying attention to American cultures. 😃 Love how spot on you were regarding Louisiana and its French connection. Smart young man!
There are the Wichita Mountains and the Wichita River, and Wichita County in Oklahoma but I've never heard if a town named that. But, yes, Wichita is the biggest city in Kansas. Most outsiders might think Kansas City but KC, Ks is not that big. We (yes, I am an almost life-long resident of Wichita) are often discounted but Wichita has a population of nearly 400,000. It's about the 52nd largest city in America. (Yes, some of this I knew but I had to google for the numbers.)
I guy I knew at a former job told me that he knew an African refugee that kept pronouncing Wichita as "wi cheetah." He said it took him a while to figure out what town this person was referring to. LOL!
I'm from Western Colorado and the tribe in that area was the Ute, so it is pretty simple! But I have seen several of the NM and other western US tribe names and they can be difficult.
Sharon Amabile I agree. It’s always fun to have new people to Houston try to say Kuykendahl...lol. I’m from Aldine, and people even have trouble with that.
The French colonized the area and the French Canadians emigrated to the area....the name Cajun is from "Acadian"....the French (French quarter,) and Spanish influence are both heavy in Louisiana.
Most of the french names in louisiana come from the acadians who came here from nova Scotia and settled near the swamps of south louisiana. Also known as cajuns.
Around Seattle, which is a fairly young city in the grand scheme of things, we have some challenging Native American names, like Puyallup, Snoqualmie, Yakima, Swinomish, Tulalip, Stillaguamish, Duwamish, Makah, Hoh, Skagit and so many others. Most of those are just rivers.
Thibodaux = Tib-uh-doe, don't emphasize that middle o 😅 I didn't know there's a place called Hebert in our state, but Hebert is an *extremely* common last name here in New Orleans. With all the Louisiana names, I'm REALLY surprised they didn't give you Tchoupitoulas Street in the French Quarter. It's a lot easier to pronounce than it is to spell 😅 == Chop-ih-too-lus We also have a bunch of Greek Muse street names, that you'd NEVER think to pronounce the correct way: Calliope is NOT the musical instrument, it's Cal-ee-ope. Burgundy street is NOT pronounced like the color, but rather (seriously...) bur-GUN-dee.
Great video as always Joel and Lia!!! 👏Louisiana was a French terrority until it was purchased by America in 1803. I would love to see a Welsh town names video!!!
Louisiana is also the only state in the U.S. whose laws are based on French law. All the others are based on English law. And Wedowee is pronounced We-dow-wee. The "dow" sounds like the dou in doubt. lol
That’s great! I was born & raised in Gautier, MS. Here & in south Louisiana you need to know bayou / bi o ...or... bi u. A little to the east Escatawapa, Tchoutacabouffa River to the West. I enjoy your videos. Love y’all
Indigenous names were transliterated by explorers and how the various phonemes are spelled is partially dependent on the native language of the person writing, English, French, or Spanish generally.
Ha, I lived in Thibodaux, LA for a couple years, born not too far from there. I love hearing people from other places try and pronounce all these. Totally depends on which bayou you grew up on too, for some pronunciations.
The funny thing about Ouchita, Arkansas is, you pass through Washita just a few minutes before you get there. Both are pronounced the same. 😂🤷🏼♀️ I would love to hear you do Irish town names! 😍
In Louisiana, Thibodaux and Boudreaux are common last names among Cajuns. It's common to makes jokes about ol' Thibodaux and Boudreaux. I want y'all to try to try to say Calcasieu 😂😂😂
You know that Louisiana was settled by the French because ... drumroll, please ... the whole thing is named for some chap called "Louis." (Loo-wee) They seem quite fond of kings with that name over in France.
You guys are correct about the French influence in Louisiana. In the mid 1700's, the French Acadians from Acadia (Acadie), Canada, were deported to Louisiana because they wouldn't sign an oath of allegiance to Great Britain. The Acadians became Cajuns as they assimilated into the new culture. Thanks for another fun and interesting video! xx
John Ley The first permanent French settlement was actually way before Thomas Jefferson. After French explorer La Salle named it after King Louis XIV the first permanent French settlement was in 1699!
Then Great Britain was on the winning side of the Seven Years War, so took the French colonies in Quebec. So, No Oath, no Residence, like you said. Most left for the Caribbean, but enough went to southwest Louisiana.
Wash i TAW= quachita. You should come to Lake Quachita. Very beautiful. The city is the first national park in America and a gangster hot spot from back in the day. Hot Springs National Park, AR and yes it has hot springs bathhouses.
I live in southeast Georgia between Brunswick and Waycross we have the Okefenokee swamp which is Seminole for land of the trembling earth, a few miles from my house is a settlement called Incachee and west of Waycross is a small town called Willacoochie !
Here are two from Florida: Kissimmee (the city next to Walt Disney World), Econlackhatchee (the river that runs through Orlando) and Alafaya (the road UCF is on). I always hear these pronounced wrong.
As a native of the Acadian Region of Louisiana, Acadiana, I invite you to come and visit. Many of the town, city, and community names here are a mixture of the cultures that make up the area. There are French Names, some of which you tried here, Spanish names, Native American names, even some German and English names. It is quite the region for fun, food, and general reverie! As we like to say, “Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler!” Viv L’Acadie
I lived in Ouachita Parish in LA at the time of hurricane Katrina when a bunch of refugees from south LA flooded in, and they didn't know how to pronounce Ouachita, either! ;-)
I’m a newer subscriber (about a month). I just have to tell you how much I love your channels. You make me laugh when I need to be uplifted. Learn so much from you. I’m from Michigan ~ I live in the southern thing area.
This was fun! A lot of places Americans mispronounce too. In Iowa we have towns like What Cheer, Maquoketa, Sigourney, and Quasquetin on the Wapsinicon river.
I kept singing that G'n'R song... Where do we go? Where do we go, now? Where do we go? Ooo ooo oh, where do we gooooo? Awwww, where do we go, now? *whisper*Sweet child of mine... ROFL
As a reference see the "It's a Southern Thing" channel. The peple from the channel (real southerners) try to pronounce different towns from different southern states. Greetings from Texas!
We just had a very local version of this in North Carolina, asking how people pronounced words like Chicamacomico, Lejeune, Chalybeate, or Fuquay-Varina
That was a fun video! You two would probably enjoy the Annual Poarch Creek Indian Thanksgiving Pow Wow in Atmore, Alabama. Everyone is welcome and it is so much fun, the food is delicious, and the dancing and crafts are super fun too.
What was known as the Louisiana Purchase covers a lot states in the center of the US. The French had forts in the upper portion and a lot of French fur traders and settlements in the lower portion so there are French place names all over what was the Louisiana Purchase. Louisiana, the state, is where the French speaking Arcadians (Cajuns) settled after being run out of eastern Canada by the British. Since they lost contact with France, they speak a French dialect that has evolved separately from France.
Wow. I live in Ouachita County, Arkansas. "Ouachita" is a french spelling of the name of the Native American Tribe for that lived along the Ouachita River. We pronounce it "Wah-shi-taw"
You're right about the French heritage. The French had a chain of settlement (and trade networks with Native Americans) from Quebec to Louisiana. New Orleans was named for Orleans, France. The Cajuns were French settlers who moved down when Britain captured Acadia, a corner of Canada that overlapped a little with what is now the US state of Maine.
The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.
