So, how do you pronounce the name of our town?
OSOYOOS TIMES-August 12, 2009
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
I say “tomato,” you say “tomatto,” but if Mayor Stu Wells is within earshot, you better watch your mouth when you say “Osoyoos.”
“I want to get t-shirts that state, ‘There is no SOY in O-soo-yuss,’” Wells said, explaining that the pronunciation of the town’s name seems to have taken on a few new varieties over the years.
“The name of the town is ‘O-soo-yuss,’” Wells said.
A letter to Wells from a Kamloops resident named David Sallows recently brought the friendly debate to the forefront.
Sallows, a former Osoyoos resident, said he graduated from South Okanagan High School in 1961.
“In those days, and in the days of my grandparents (Iverson), the town of Osoyoos was pronounced as ‘O-soo-yuss,’” he stated. “Sometime in the 1980s or ‘90s the pronunciation seemed to shift to ‘O-so-yoos.’”
Sallows said he believes the change in pronunciation is directly attributable to the news media, particularly that of television.
“It bothers me that the pronunciation of a town’s name can be changed so readily in one’s lifetime.”
It bothers Wells, too.
“We have all these varieties,” he said.
A quick trip to the beach and the streets of the town highlights some of the possibilities.
“Uh-soo-yuss,” said Anniessa Frampton, 11, who is visiting her grandma.
“Oh-soo-yuss,” said Elaine Derksen, who lives in the town.
“Uh-soo-yuss,” said Pam Davis, from the Pharmasave on 78th Avenue.
Davis has lived in Osoyoos for more than four years and said the conversation has come up a time or two around the store.
The debate continues.
“The ‘soo’ part is important… but other people have told me it doesn’t matter,” Davis said. “On the phone, you have to spell it.”
Bob Etienne is an interpreter from the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre and he weighs in with an opinion, too.
“Most of the towns in the valley are derived from our native language,” he said.
The language is called “nsilxcim’ and is pronounced “skeltchen.”
It’s more commonly called “Okanagan.”
In the 1800s, the town now named “Osoyoos” was an important junction.
“It was kind of a mining camp, when the people were coming up the Cariboo trail,” Etienne explained. “When they got this far, it was a main stop. We had a good run of travellers, east and west, north and south.”
But for many years before that, the Okanagan people called the area Sooyoos.
That word refers to the narrowing of a body of water or the place where two bodies of water come together.
The native word was changed with an “O” added at the beginning.
“People used this because they couldn’t pronounce our language,” Etienne said.
Now, the most common variations on the pronunciation seem to be “O-so-yuss” and “Uh-soo-yuss.”
Those ones aren’t so hard for Wells to accept – just be careful not to stumble on the one that gets his ire up.
“The one that drives me crazy is ‘O-soy-yuss,’” he said. “I do want to make those shirts.”
reporter@osoyoostimes.com
