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This weekend, June 26 to 28, 2015, the citizens of Rio, Wisconsin, are celebrating the sesquicentennial of the founding of their village. This same weekend, the citizens of nearby Fjord, Wisconsin, are conducting a similar celebration. We Fjordians, however, are calling our event a “Hundred-and-Fiftieth Anniversary” because we found annoying the hissing sound that Rioans made when they challenged one another to say “sesquicentennial” thrice in swift succession.
This seems an appropriate time for me, David C. Fischer, to explain why people in Fjord (and most anyone anywhere in Wisconsin) pronounce the name of our town as “Ford” without the j syllable. It’s because Wisconsin people pronounce “Rio” to rhyme with Ohio without the Oh syllable.
I would like, further, to remind readers that the c in “Fischer” is very nearly silent.
I am grateful for this opportunity, today, to furnish this information to my many fans outside Wisconsin who enjoy reading aloud the stories of Rio and Fjord.
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