People Try To Pronounce Massachusetts Town Names

If you want to look like a total fool, apparently the best thing to do is try to ask for directions in Massachusetts. BuzzFeed created a video of people trying to pronounce the names of Massachusetts towns and, spoiler alert, it went horribly. I have only been to Massachusetts once, so I had no idea these counter-intuitive town pronunciations were a statewide affliction until I saw this video. My initial reaction: Massachusetts, what is your problem? Are you trying to be a total troll? My guess is yes, because apparently once you cross that state border, vowels are meaningless and nothing makes sense anymore. (I have a feeling I would get beat up in some parts of Massachusetts for saying that.)

To be honest, it almost makes me wish I was from Massachusetts so I could be part of the insider club of people who know how to pronounce obscure town names like Cochituate. You think you know how to say Worchester because of the sauce? Think again. It's "wooster", as in what Elmer Fudd would have been griping about had Bugs Bunny been a chicken. This is not a beautiful land of fall colors and founding father nature trails, it's a cold land of deceit and trickery, and I am not here for it. Sorry Massachusetts, but in reality, I'm not that sorry.

LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, MASSACHUSETTS.

YOU'RE DESTROYING SOULS.

Anyway, feel free to check out the full video here:

In the meantime, here are four more states who have insanely hard to pronounce town names.

1. New York

I went to school here, so I'll be the first to say it: New York has some surprisingly tricky towns. Schenectady? Skaneateles? Other hard to pronounce S names? Good luck.

2. Kentucky

This state has some tricky names, not because they look tricky, but because locals seem to have their own pronunciations and a lot of them are counterintuitive. Louisville? Loo-a-vull. Versailles? Ignore your history lessons, because in Kentucky it's actually Ver-say-ills.

3. Washington

This is another state with difficult to pronounce S names. Spokane, is actually spo-can like spoken word, and Sequim is really skwim like, uhh, swimming along the top of water? And let's not forget about Puyallup (pew-al-lup). It must be easy to tell locals apart from visitors, that's for sure.

4. Pennsylvania

REPRESENT. This is my home state, so I am very familiar with people mispronouncing our town names. The best way to recognize out-of-towners? How they pronounce Lancaster — when you're in PA, you stress the first syllable and not the second. Also Wilkesbarre? Wilks bar-ee. Always.

Images: Buzzfeed/YouTube; Anjali Patel(4)