Oregon Hikers

"How do you pronounce...?" questions pop up in discussions pretty often. For the ones where an answer is actually known, it would be a huge help if the pronunciations were added to their field guide entries. If there's a reference where that info came from that would be great to know too. I can find references for pronunciations of town names, but not features like waterfalls. Calling a ranger station every time I'm wondering about a name and hoping whoever answers the phone isn't guessing too doesn't seem like the best option.

Right now I'm trying to figure out "Wiesendanger." You'd think since it's named for a person in relatively recent history it wouldn't be that hard, but at best I can find other people with the same name, who use multiple different pronunciations.

The proper German pronunciation would be something like WEE-zen-DANG-er. But Americans often replace Old World pronunciations with their own versions, so I can't absolutely vouch for that one.

Aimless wrote: ↑

April 29th, 2019, 9:43 am

The proper German pronunciation would be something like WEE-zen-DANG-er. But Americans often replace Old World pronunciations with their own versions, so I can't absolutely vouch for that one.

Actually the German would be VEE-zen-DAHNG-er.

But Albert Wiesendanger (1893-1989) was an American, born in Portland to Swiss immigrants. I think the standard American pronunciation for this one would be "WEE-zen-DANG-er" (rhymes with "banger") or "WEE-zen-DANG-grr" (rhymes with "anger"). I suppose you'd have to ask one of his family members to be sure.