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Pennsylvania is famous for many things, especially its rich
history and the rolling hills of the Amish country. Pennsylvania
means Penn's Woods, William Penn being the founding father of the state.
It took me a while before I could type Pennsylvania without messing
it up too badly, and even now I tend to type it once, and just copy&paste
throughout the document... But Pennsylvania's letters aren't really
the problem, though. I did manage to get used to it. There
are many states that have long names, and Pennsylvania is at least phoenetically
reasonable.
Instead, I find that people here in Pennsylvania put the letters in
their place names in the wrong order, so as to make it nearly impossible
to really pronounce them. I tell you, it's a pronunciation nightmare
living here.
Sure we have our fair share of "English" names, such as Intercourse
and Blue Ball. Not to mention more conventional names like Phoenixville
and Collegeville. Even Norristown and Wayne are easy. But the
more I get out, the more I realize that this state's founding fathers suffered
from a tremendous lack of logical thinking.
Take, for instance, Bryn Mawr. How do you say it? (Brin'-Mar)
Bala Cynwyd? (Bala'-kin'-wood) Uwchland? (Wuk'-lan)
Schuylkill? (Skoo'-kil) Conshohocken? All right, so you can
eventually sound out the last one, but at a glance, it looks impossible.
So, I conclude having made my point, and leaving you one last stumper.
How do you think you should pronounce "Tredyffrin?"
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