Spell Me A River

Say What? A Visit To Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

(CBS)  More than four times as long as the Mississippi, the longest body of water in America is a lake located near Webster, Mass. The longest, that, is, if you measure it not in miles, but in letters.

What lake? As CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports for this "Assignment America," it's extremely hard to say.

Susan Freiswick is president of the local chamber of commerce. It's her job to promote businesses on the lake. And yet, even she can't say what lake.

She makes two attempts at pronouncing it before giving up. "I missed the last part," she says. "Obviously I didn't practice it enough."

In Susan's defense, for most people, mastering the name of this place is a life-long pursuit. It typically begins in the third grade. Kids learn the Nipmunk Indian derivation of the name basically means, "fishing place at the boundary." They learn it has 15 g's alone. They learn it's longer than any other place name in the country, and wider than their gym.

And they start to learn how to say it:

"Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg!" they say in unison.

Got that? Hartman didn't either. Which brings us to lake association president and expert lake name say-er Dick Cazeault. Supposedly he knows the right pronunciation.

He rattled off a pretty convincing rendition.

Fact is, most people go to great lengths to avoid saying the name. Instead, they like to call it Webster Lake, after the town, or simply "the lake." Anything but having to say the whole name.

Unfortunately, someone still has to know how to spell it.

Carla Manzi runs the gift shop here. It's her job to cram the 45-letter name onto shirts and hats. So of course she noticed right away when it was spelled wrong on the accompanying sign.

She says she spoke up, but, "Apparently it fell on deaf ears."

"Who's going to know other than us?" Dick asks.

For six years, that was the thinking. Until one extremely observant tourist from Arizona notified the local paper. The scam was up and the sign was changed. Question now is - do they know their police cars are wrong too?

[perm3800a]

Why is it that folks thnk soup du jour is more elegant than 'soup of the day' or that is more erudite to say 'ici bon' than 'it's good' when that's just what it is? This fascination for names in old or foreign languages that translate to some banality (and you just know that the Algonquins didn't bother to say :Hey, honey, I'm going down to your-fish-your-side-i'll-fish-my-side-and-no-one-will-fish-from-the-middle'. He probably yelled "Hey, babe, I'm going down to the lake! Fish for dinner!" at which time she headed for the yard to strangle a chicken. A chicken in the hand is more likely than a fish in the creel.

[Dgunner]

Wow you should see the bass I caugh in the lake with the long name. Where did you catch it? In the mouth.

[juwboy]

In Wales, there`s a village called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch.

In New Zealand there`s a village with an even longer name. I don`t remember the middle of it but it begins Taumatawhakatang- and ends with -kitanatahu.

[cs4466]

nevermind, found out it has Native American roots. Very interesting and unique!

[cs4466]

Does this name have some sort of meaning in native American Indian? How was this name chosen? I hope it wasn't chosen simply because it was simply long and difficult in an effort to be unique.

[rushlimpdrug]

This was an absolutely wonderful report.

It was refreshingly told with beautiful light humor.

Congrat's to the reporter for lightening up the news.

Wonderful.

[Mass_Native]

My Grandmother taught me how to pronouce this when I was 7; I'm now 67, & can say it without hesitation. I also learned the same meaning as cbwhitney above. 3 cheers for the Algonquins!

[cbwhitney]

re: Assignment America 5/15/09: Your story on Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg was GREAT! My mom (now 92 years young) grew up in Webster and as kids we all had to learn how to say the name of the lake. To this day I can say it without hesitation. Spelling it is a bit more of a challenge. But the translation we learned is so much more interesting than your reported "fishing place at the boundary". We were taught it means "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, and nobody will fish in the middle!" Isn't that a lot more fun!