Ohio’s Oldest Town Is Amongst America’s Most Difficult To Pronounce

Every state in the United States has those towns, streets, buildings, landmarks, and other significant things with weird names. Each region of the country speaks in a different way than the others but also each state may have different slang than the others. And it doesn't stop there, there are often different diction and rhetorics used in different cities inside each state.

In addition to the differences in talking styles across the country, there are also several different types of origin stories that contribute to all of this foolishness. Ohio is amongst the oldest of the states in the Midwest as this plays heavily into their origins across the state but also their vocabulary and slang terms. The early history of Ohio has granted them the honor of having one of the most difficult town names to pronounce in America.

The cool thing about some of the names of towns and other things across the country is that you could be living in a place your entire life or visit a place frequently and still be pronouncing it incorrectly. Sometimes asking a local can help you find the correct answer and other times you have to hope to find it online. Lucky for you, Reader's Digest has done a lot of that work for you.

Reader's Digest found the toughest town names to pronounce in each city, compiled a list, and figured out how to pronounce each of them correctly. Here is what the town and pronunciation for the Buckeye state:

Gnadehutten- 

The village of Gnadehutten, Ohio is in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and is Ohio’s oldest existing settlement, having been founded in October 1772 by German-Americans. And that goes a long way toward explaining the name and its pronunciation: It’s derived directly from the German word, gnadenhütten, which means “huts of grace,” and it’s unspellable in the English language, although we give those founders an A for effort.

Do you think you know how to say it? Well, I won't hold out on the right answer any longer, here's the correct pronunciation:

The closest we can get you is ji-NAY-dun-huh-tehn. According to non-native English speakers, these are the hardest words to pronounce in the English language.

I still don't think I can say it right, even after the phonetic spelling, are you having better luck than I am?