Feature Sep 16, 2015 4:20 PM

A Portlander's Pronunciation Guide

Seriously, Stop Fucking Calling It "Ore-uh-GONE"

by Megan Burbank

Comments

1
Pretty sure glisan, named after Rodney Glisan is pronounced the other way, as in glisten. I don't really give a shit,though, and neither should you.
Patrick Connell on September 16, 2015 at 12:25 PM · Report this
2
It's actually pronounced OR-e-GUN. I'm from YU-GENE. Go jump in the Colubi-YAY and swim back to Warshington. Dummy.
Charles Horse on September 16, 2015 at 1:02 PM · Report this
3
Patrick, it is indeed named after someone who pronounced his name "Glisten" but I think that fight was given up a long time ago (like half a century or more) even by natives, and everyone says "Glee-sen."
Blabby on September 16, 2015 at 2:25 PM · Report this
4
Columbia.THERE'S NO YAY. I was born and raised in Portland, and no time in my entire 25 years on this beautiful Portland soil has anyone I've ever met, EVER, called it Columbi-YAY.
Angel 1 on September 16, 2015 at 9:24 PM · Report this
5
Seriously...Columbi-YAY? WTF is that about? Are you playing a joke on the newbies? You are literally the first person in human history to pronounce it that way.
GLV on September 17, 2015 at 9:45 AM · Report this
6
Yup, very old Portlanders would tell you, "Listen, it's Glis-sen." But it's been pronounced "Gleason" for as long as I've been aware of it, so that's what it is now.

Oregon doesn't have an accent, but we have ridiculously lazy diction. You may pretty much assume you're in the right if you lose a syllable in most words. It's not 'Beaver-Ton,' it's "Beaverd'n." "Portl'n," "Oryg'n" and of course 'Warrenton' is "Warnt'n"

As to Willamette, I bet the embarrassing, "wrong" way of pronouncing it is actually the right way, but again, no one cares. It's been pronounced "Wi-LAM-ette" for as long as I've been alive, so there it is.
on September 17, 2015 at 11:30 AM · Report this
7
Holy shit. Really?

ORY-GUN. Not ORE-uh-ghinn. Nice try, Washingtonian.

Col-um-beeyah. No 'YAY". Quit being silly.

As a 5th generation Oregonian, I should know.
Mike M. on September 17, 2015 at 11:38 AM · Report this
8
I've actually heard The Dalles pronounced "The Dales", see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrb9MV5KIC…
aprillorraine on September 17, 2015 at 12:55 PM · Report this
9
Look at your keyboard, I think that Columbi-YAY was supposed to be Columbi-YAH. Its probably a typo. The y and h are so close together.
Tom Mcroy on September 17, 2015 at 3:18 PM · Report this
10
I hope so, otherwise I've either been saying it wrong for 33 years (ok, I wasn't speaking for a couple of those I'm sure) and no one has had the balls to correct me. I might also be incompatible with Portland hipster lingo being a mid-valley native. And as I'm sitting on my couch (pronoucing it cow-ch, maybe because we've got more cows in this area?) I'm wondering who calls this thing a cooch. Pretty certain if I invited someone to have a seat on my cooch I'd being saying something lewd and anatomically impossible.
Tillman Bennett on September 17, 2015 at 6:35 PM · Report this
11
I think the point of this article was to make it easy for natives to pick out who is new to the area.
pollo on September 18, 2015 at 8:57 AM · Report this
12
Also, Aloha is uh-LOH-uh, not uh-LOH-HA.
Kellen B on September 18, 2015 at 10:34 AM · Report this
13
Seriously though, "Oregon" has 2 syllables: OR-GAN or OR-GUN. If you pronounce the E you are an import.
Michele Steward on September 18, 2015 at 12:30 PM · Report this
14
That's bullshit. We pronounce the 'y' in Orygun.
on September 18, 2015 at 2:15 PM · Report this
15
If they want me to say Alowa they are going to have to take the palm trees off my cans and spell their town name right.
Ora on September 18, 2015 at 5:16 PM · Report this
16
http://our.laurelhurstpdx.org/index.php?ti…
Pezshannan on September 20, 2015 at 2:37 PM · Report this