Jan/Feb 2025 (Volume 17, Issue 1)

 

By Arvid Huisman

 

I love Iowa but will readily concede we are a state of confusion. Visitors struggle with our strange pronunciation of town names like Nevada, Madrid and East Peru (say “PEE-roo.”) Then there’s Osceola—city and county—which we pronounced differently than in many states. It’s their “AH-see-oh-luh” vs. our “OH-see-oh-luh.” Now that’s confusing.

 

On an airplane several years ago I spoke with a young Arizona woman originally from Iowa. She had lived in Fort Dodge for a few years and said she was initially confused because many folks in that area refer to nearby Webster City simply as Webster. (I did, too, when I lived there.)

 

This young lady grew up near Webster in southeast Iowa and couldn’t figure it out when a Fort Dodge neighbor said she was going to Webster. Why, she wondered, were they going all the way to southeast Iowa to visit a town of barely 100 people? She eventually understood. Her neighbor was driving only 20 miles to Webster City.

 

Speaking of Fort Dodge, I can usually tell if someone is from that part of Iowa because they pronounce Fort Dodge as one word: “Fordodge.” Elsewhere in Iowa it is pronounced as two words.

 

 

Buffalo Center in northern Iowa is sometimes shortened to one word, as well. I recall my Kossuth County relatives saying they were “going to Buffalo.” This could be confusing to a Quad Cities resident because the town of Buffalo is in Scott County, just south of Davenport. 

 

If you’re not a native of Sac County you may be mispronouncing the name of the town of Odeboldt. It’s called “OH-DEE-bolt” by most of the locals.

 

When our family moved to southern Iowa in 1988 we had to relearn some of our geographical pronunciations. The Union County town of Lorimor is pronounced “LAHR-uh-mer.” Down near the Missouri border sits the small town of Lamoni, most famous for its frequent appearance on Iowa weather maps. The TV weather person pronounces it “Luh-MOHN-igh.” Some Southern Iowans pronounce it “Luh-MOHN-uh.” 

 

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