21.04.2009 Incorrect spelling

The town Webster in the American state Massachusetts will replace road signs which mark the route to a local lake.

The signs read “Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg” rather than “Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg” (in case you didn’t spot the difference: the 20^th letter should be ‘u’ rather than ‘o’ and the 38^th letter should be ‘n’, not ‘h’.)

The name is the longest name of a lake in the world, and is one of the longest known geographical names. It comes from a local Native American language and loosely translated means: ‘You fish on your side, I fish on my side and nobody fishes in the middle.’

The signs have been in place since 2003 and the fact that the spelling was incorrect was noticed some time ago. However, what exactly was incorrect was not as easy to spot, as there are no less than 26 different variant names recorded in the US Geographic Names System.

And the spelling on the signs matched none of those versions.

Making life easier
In the end, the version recorded the most often was chosen.

It is unclear how the mistakes slipped in. The contractor who made the sign could have made the spelling mistakes or correctly reproduced the incorrect spelling. The town of Webster is trying to determine who the contractor was, so that the mistake can be corrected.

To Webster locals the lake is also known simply as Lake Webster. You can learn how to pronounce the original name here.

Source: NOS.nl