2 Michigan Towns Earn New Title Of America’s Most Mispronounced

Michigan has its fair share of tongue-twisted city and town names.

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Most Mispronounced Places In America

The travel experts, Frommers, compiled a list of the most mispronounced places across the United States.

"Sneaky silent letters, surprising spots to place emphasis, and Americanized versions of foreign words can trip up tongues from Albuquerque to Zephyrhills. For out-of-towners, nothing will separate them from the locals quite as fast as saying the name of their city, region, state, or street the wrong way. Impress them instead by learning the correct pronunciations of these U.S. locales you might be mangling."

Which Michigan City Do Most Americans Mispronounce?

Frommers shared that there is a specific Michigan town that holds the title of one of America's most mispronounced places.

Mackinac Island.

As a Michigan transplant, when I heard how people say Mackinac, I lost my mind trying to wrap my brain around how that could be correct.

For those who are wondering how it is correctly pronounced, Mackinac is said like MACK-in-awe!

There is a deeper and longer answer to why Mackinac Island is pronounced the way it is.

According to Mackinac Island's website, it has to do with the history of Native American, British, and French influences.

"Mackinac Island is a shortened version of the Native American name, Michilimackinac. The Anishinaabek word means place of the great turtle."

As for the great turtle, it is thought that, with the limestone bluffs that are scattered across Mackinac Island, it looked like a giant turtle peeking through the water.

However, Mackinac Island is not the only town that Frommers mentioned is hard to pronounce.

Sault Ste. Marie is also on the list as well.

"If you travel on to the state's Upper Peninsula, you'll reach the historic town of Sault Ste. Marie, a state forest of the same name, and, across the Canadian border, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. For all three, use soo-saynt-mar-EE, or "The Soo" for short."

If you want to see the other cities and towns that are mispronounced across the United States, you can read the full Frommers article.