Originally posted by: ForumMaster
this question is problematic as the answer will differ depending on where you're from and what dialect you speak. personally, i say it: "Or'e-gone".
Not to sound like an asshole, but you're wrong. I've lived in this state for 25 years; how presumptious you are to assume that your pronunciation is somehow equally as correct as mine.
An example: When I was in school, one of my classmates was named Jose, but it wasn't pronounced "ho-zay," as in Spanish; he (or his parents, not sure where it started) pronounced it "Joe-zay." I actually witnessed a substitute teacher insist that he was wrong about the pronunciation of
his own name. Well who would know better than him how to pronounce it? It's his damn name! But this sub insisted on calling him "Ho-zay" for the rest of the class.
So we Oregonians get a little fed up when someone insists that we are pronouncing the name of somewhere we live incorrectly, especially if that person has never even been to Oregon. You wouldn't go to Arkansas and tell everyone there how nice "Ar-kan-zis" is. Nor would you tell someone from Chicago that you'd always wanted to visit "Ill-in-noiz" (or my personal favorite "Ill-in-wah"). It's ignorant to pronounce someone's home city, state or country incorrectly; it's rude to insist that you are right if someone corrects you on it.