Wabash, folks!!! Ouabache is pronounced Wabash.
Here's a little etymology of the word taken from Wikipedia:
Wabash: English spelling of French Ouabache, from Miami-Illinois waapaahšiiki, "it shines white".
I'm sure you all remember that in your basic French 101 you learned that "oui" is pronounced "we." Well, "oua" is therefore pronounced "wa" and since there is no accent on the final e, "bache" is pronounced "bash"
Wabash. As in the famous, albeit muddy, Indiana river.
Ouabache State Park is located less than five minutes from our former home in Bluffton, Indiana. It is STILL one of the nicest places to camp in north eastern Indiana. In fact - - - I'm getting the "yen" to go over there and camp right now.Pudgie pies - - - YUM.
Folks in these here parts have long since forgotten, if they ever knew, that Ouabache is the French spelling of Wabash. So there are two prominant Hoosier pronunciations - - - both of them equally WRONG, like I said in yesterday's post.
The first, and most common, is "Oh - botch - ee." That is straight forward enough, we can all "see" that one coming.
But for many of the dear folks who are locals in and around Wells County, where Ouabache Park is located, the pronunciation is "Quah - botch - ee." Seems that at one point in that county's history, some poor misguided sign printer spelled it "Quabache." NONE of those signs remain to this day - - - but the mispronunciation lingers on, and on, and on.
Tune in to this etymology program again next week when we will discuss the pronunciation of "Lac Courte Oreilles!!!"
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8 comments:
I have to admit I cheated and looked up the pronunciation! Still it's fun and I never would have guessed!!
well it looks like that now that you say it :) Now I know something cool about Indiana. Thanks!
Ooh la la, so francais! Er, franglais. Or something. Fun bit of history! I grew up in northwestern Indiana, so I'd definitely heard of the Wabash but never knew any history of it.
dumb person here - what's a pudgie pie?
Because I know how to pronounce the word correctly, but no one around here says "Wabash" (I am Keetha's eldest daughter and still living in Bluffton) I just call it "The State Park". Ha!
My grammar school French started off with "La plume de ma tante" and went by way of "Les belles grapes pourpres" to "fin" and it took 5 years to get there! My only problem with Wabash (didn't know there was another spelling) was whether the first syllable was "Wah" or "Way. So now I can go back to my Pete Seeger songbook and sing 'The Wabash Cannonball', my dearest wish!
Are you headed North, then?
It, er, sounds like it.
I did not see Wabash coming out of that.
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