SoapZone Community Message Board

a mispronunciation of the Native American word "Sheauga", which is the Seneca and Onondaga tribes' word for "raccoon". Because as you know from my recent story about trapping wildlife in the attic, we have a LOT of raccoons in the area <g>.

If you think "Geauga" is hard to pronounce (incidentally, my high school was West Geauga High School), try the name of the county Cleveland is in: Cuyahoga. I've been entertained over the years by listening to local pro athletes (and in one instance, Joe Montagna in an episode of Criminal Minds) try to pronounce it. There's actually two acceptable pronunciations: kie (rhymes with "tie")-ah-HAW-guh and kie-a-HOE-guh. Not cah-HOO-guh as JM said (the episode was set in East Cleveland, which the show portrayed as a ritzy neighborhood...it's actually the opposite). The Mohawk named the area Cayagaga, meaning "crooked river" (NOT "burning river", as a lot of people like to joke; back before serious conservation efforts were made, the Cuyahoga River was so polluted, it actually caught on fire. 14 times, in fact). The Seneca called it Cuyohaga, which means "place of the jawbone". They thought the river's bends resembled an animal's jawbone.

And I had it easy. Bff grew up in Tuscarawas County (past Akron but northeast of Columbus). That's "TUSS-cuh-rah-uz". Most folks kind of slur it altogether, like cooks do when saying "Worcestershire sauce". Tuscarawas comes from a Delaware (Lenape) word meaning either "old town" or "open mouth". Which...are two very different things, so I'm not sure why folks can't decide on the proper meaning.

Thanks for attending my Ted talk on hard to pronounce county names in Northeast Ohio!