Non-obvious placename pronunciations

[KathTheDragon]

It means I like you.

Yay!

[linguoboy]

Ooh, another lovely example of Midwestern French: the Marais des Cygnes River.

Hint: According to the USGS, attested alternative spellings include Mary de Zene and Miry Disein.

[Travis B.]

Ooh, another lovely example of Midwestern French: the Marais des Cygnes River.

Hint: According to the USGS, attested alternative spellings include Mary de Zene and Miry Disein.

Of course the alternative spellings make the pronunciation obvious, but otherwise who would have guessed that orthographic word-initial c corresponds to /z/...

Without them I would have guessed /ˈmeːreɪ̯ də ˈsiːn/ or /ˈmeːriː də ˈsiːn/.

[zompist]

Ooh, another lovely example of Midwestern French: the Marais des Cygnes River.

Hint: According to the USGS, attested alternative spellings include Mary de Zene and Miry Disein.

Wow. I'll take that as an excellent counter-example to my earlier statement that French placenames in the US are pronounced as English with only minor gestures toward the original.

This site gives no less than three pronunciations, from two speakers. The first of them, /məˈriː də ˈsiːn/, strikes me as at least an attempt at the French pronunciation. The vowel in marais is wrong, but it's certainly not taken from the spelling. I wonder if there was interference from "Marie" (which would also explain the alternative spelling with Mary).