Ever been called out for mispronouncing Calais, or Topsham? Or wondered how to say “Lake Champlain” in Abenaki? With your help, we’ve built an audio guide for that.
Our show is made for the ear! Hear all the pronunciations in a single, fun listen by playing the episode above. Or, explore the guide below.
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From Alburgh to Worcester, the Vermont map has some deceptively tricky town and city names.
“I’ve been listening to your podcast and I found out that I’ve been saying Montpelier wrong this whole time,” Samantha Spano, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, told Brave Little State.
With apologies to the French language, our state’s capital is not Mon-pell-yay — and it’s not the only place with an idiosyncratic Green Mountain pronunciation.
"In Rutland, we don't say our middle or final consonants," says VPR listener Liz. "So it’s 'Ruh-lin.'"
Granted, not everyone says their town's name in the same way. We heard from listener Kevin that the town of Bradford is most certainly pronounced "BRED-fud": "I grew up in 'BRED-fud,' as did my family for generations before."
"[That's] a wonderful Vermont dialect," noted another listener, and Vermont native, Diana. "But most of us, I think, say 'BRAD-furd.' With the emphasis on 'BRAD', and 'ford' like 'furd.'"
Brave Little State, VPR’s people-powered journalism project, began thinking about local pronunciations while fielding this question from Samantha Spano: “What do I need to know about moving to Vermont?”
We do plan to answer Samantha’s question in full; keep an eye on our show’s podcast feed to hear the advice we’re compiling.
But in the meantime, we’ve been collecting town/city “pronouncers,” as we call them in radio, from listeners and VPR staffers alike.
The names of Vermont's cities and towns are relatively recent, of course. For thousands of years, before the arrival of European colonizers, the Abenaki lived here in Askaskwiwajoak (also known as the Green Mountains) — and they are still here.
So, we also reached out to members of the Abenaki community to learn more about the words in their language that describe the landscape, and their relationships with it.
We received a lot of help with both sets of names. Thank you/Wliwni!
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How to use this guide
By scrolling down, you'll find a list of Vermont and Abenaki place names. Each has an audio file you can play to hear the correct pronunciation.
Note that many town/city names have multiple pronunciations, depending on who’s saying them, and, in some cases, how long the speaker (or their family) has lived here. This guide may not capture every variation, but it will help you avoid the most egregious errors.
And lastly, we've included instructions near the bottom of this story for how you can contribute to this guide.
Enjoy!
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Vermont place name pronunciations
Alburgh: AL(like pal)-burg
Ascutney: uh-SKUT-nee
Athens: AY(like hay)-thins
Averill: AY(like hay)-vrill
Barnard: BAR-nerd
Barnet: BAR-nit
Barre: BARE-eee
Beebe Plain: BEE-bee plane
Berkshire: BURK-shear OR BURK-shurr
Berlin: BURR-lin OR burr-LIN
Bomoseen: BOMB-uh-zeen
Bradford: BRAD-furd OR BRED-fud
Brattleboro: BRATTLE-boro
Brookline: BROOK-line
Calais: CAL-iss
Charlotte: shar-LOTT
Corinth: CUR-inth
Coventry: CAW-ven-tree
Fayston: FAY-stin
Goshen: GO-shin
Groton: GRAW-tin
Guildhall: GILL-hall
Irasburg: IRIS-burg
Middlebury: MIDDLE-berry
Montpelier: mawnt-PEEL-yer OR mont-PILL-yer
Orleans: or-LEANS
Peacham: PEACH-um
Pownal: POW-nul
Quechee: KWEE-chee
Rutland: RUH-lin
Sherbrooke: SURE-brook (English) OR share-BRUHK (Quebecois)
Tinmouth: TIN-mith
Topsham: TOPS-um
Townshend: TOWNZ-und
Vergennes: vurr-JENzz
Vermont: vurr-MAWH OR vurr-MAWNT
Vershire: VURR-shear
Westminster: WEST-min-stir OR WEST-minister
Whitingham: WHITE-ing-ham
Winooski/Winoski: wih-NOO(like moo)-skee (English)/WE-noo-skee (Abenaki, meaning onion land)
Wolcott: WOOL-kit
Worcester: WUH-stir
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Abenaki place name pronunciations
Askaskwiwajoak (the Green Mountains, Vermont): ahs-KAHS-skee-WA-dzo-AK
Kchikokw (great whirlpool; Bellows Falls): kit-see-KOHKW
Ndakinna (our land, original homeland of the Abenaki): en-DAH-kee-NAH
Ojihozo (the one who shaped himself, Rock Dunder): ode-zee-HOH-zoh
Pitawbagw (the waters between; Lake Champlain): BEE-tow(as in town)ah-BAHKW
Tmakwa (a beaver, the cutter; Jamaica; present day Abenaki community): TEH-mah-KWAH
Wantastegok (at the river where something is lost, Brattleboro): one-tah-STEH-gawk
Help us expand the guide
We have big dreams of including all 255 Vermont cities, towns and gores in this guide, plus as many Abenaki names as we can, so if you see one missing, please help us!
You can do that a couple ways: send a voice memo to hello@bravelittlestate.org OR call the BLS hotline and leave a message: 802-552-4880. Please record your name, the pronunciation, any other tidbits — history, personal connections to the place, anything like that.
This is a long-term project, so add your voice when you can, and share it with anyone you think will enjoy it and/or benefit from some guidance.
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Thanks to all our listeners who shared their expertise for this guide: Aaron, Alisha, Bill, Casey, Chris, Diana, Emilie, Emmet, Franci, Haley, Jean, Kevin, Lacey, Liz, Mark, Matt, Morgan, Sally, and Shelby... and to VPR’s Abagael Giles, Anna Van Dine, Howard Weiss Tisman, John Dillon, Nina Keck and Peter Hirschfeld. We worked off a list first compiled by Jane Lindholm.Special thanks to Jesse Bowman Bruchac and Rich Holschuh.
This episode was edited by Lynne McCrea, with engineering support from Peter Engisch. Our theme music is by Ty Gibbons, other music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public Radio. We have support from VPR sustaining members. If you’re a fan of the show, you can make a gift at bravelittlestate.org/donate. We really can’t do this work without you.
You can sign up for our free newsletter here, and we are on Instagram and Twitter at @bravestatevt.
This post has been updated.