How do you say...

“Portage”, is it like storage or more like mirage? Curious and bored.

Porridge but with a T in the middle. Killing some time before I head out.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/portage

Depends where you’re from and how pretentious you want to be.

2 Likes

It depends on who you want to impress.
I don’t need to impress any one so I say it - like port-edge
and if it is a bad one like the "Raquette Falls one, I put a few curse words before it

In the Adirondacks the word would be “carry”, with or without the curse words!

How do you say portage? "NOT AGAIN! ".

Is it storage or is it storahge? Working class white trash here, but know how to spell.

I just say “Where’s my guys?”…

Depends where you are. In the Midwest its different than Maine. We have a strong French influence. Its not pretentious. Portaaage… often with fils de pute as an adjective

Dans le Lafayette,
once upon la feet,
l’oui l’amour poor Taj.
Would some say iz dis’crete?

“Sez Greek to moi!”
Ornery Henri did sneer.
Thee see Al d’Coda,
so some sing dans Pierre.

I have heard it both ways. Seems to depend on whether the person doing the portage is doing so with just US folks or is doing so where they meet up with Canadians. I don’t consider it pretentious either way because of hearing the pronunciation pretty interchangeably.

But yeah, carry is often used to convey the same thing.

BTW, just got informed by Webster’s that pronounciation is also fine by them, apparently not on the spell checker this site uses.

Depends on whether its a Soris or Soree River bout and whether you’re in Algonquin or the Quetico. And if you ever paddle the Bois Brule river, don’t ever talk about it.

Does it depend on how you pronounce “Mrs. Bucket”?

1 Like

Perhaps “pretentious” is too… pretentious.

Most people agree there are two common pronunciations. Which one you use depends on who you learned it from and how those around you pronounce it.

Pretentious would be if you insisted on a certain pronunciation being unequivocally correct.

Then there is Calais. Some people paddle there. Best if you pronounce it correctly.

‘how do you say’, from a few areas I’ve lived…
(PNW) geoduck (not a duck and not necessarily ‘gooey’),
(Lake Sup.) Pukaskwa (only one ‘k’ and no ‘w’ prounounced),
(NY) Poughkeepsie (picking your toes in),
(FL) just about all of the springs (‘Silver’ is about the only one I get)
……
I go with port’-idge in the BWCA, if I wonder into Quetico, it becomes por-taj’

I do enjoy some of the more tongue-in-cheek answers here. Maybe it’s time to rename the dreaded land between two neighbouring bodies of water that can’t be paddled.

If available, I’ll usually paddle the long and rough way around a point rather than slog overland. If the forest path is the only way through, I’m likely to have avoided the place altogether.

In Florida every county has a Blue Spring, there is only one Silver Springs. It’s the one with the monkeys along it.

A portage here is a carry over, according to our Game and Freshwater people.

A lot of the pronunciation has to do with if you took beer on your paddle.

Not me… Cape Small and Pemaguid etc and most points are notorious for confused seas and rip currents of up to 10 mph. You probably won’t die on the portage. I am always leery of steering way out around points and not being too close for that reason. Cap La Canadiienne in Pukaskwa ( Pukasaw) is another example.