Re: CHAT: silly names

John Cowan wrote:
>But now I find that in Massachusetts, some miles south, we have Lake
>Chargoggagogg {manchaugagogg} chaubunagungamaugg, locally pronounced
>['wEpsta].  Take *that*.>

Ah me. In my salad days, I used to pass that lake and town enroute
Boston/CT.  Total bottleneck on weekends.  Not to quibble, but as I recall
it, the syllables in {..} came first, and road signs abbreviated it "Lake
Manchaug". (I could well be wrong.  Long, long ago)  Never occurred to me to
stop and ask the natives what they called it.

Michigan boasts a few-- Kalamazoo, Shiawassee; and of course Hell.
Oconomowoc Wisconsin always appealed to me.