Pere Marquette

Can I ask a silly question? How do you pronounce "Pere Marquette?"

Is it pronounced "PEAR," "PER-AY," or some other way?

Though I may incur the wrath of Hoosiers and other Midwesterners in that general area, I, as an Easterner, pronounce it the latter way.

Boston we pronounce it "PEE-AIR" "MAAR-KET" but don't pronounce a plain market.

On the CSS&SB we call it the "Pear maarket" or simply the "PM overhead"

Ryan

"Pere" is French for "Father", and in this case the name honored Pere (Father) Jacques Marquette, an early French Jesuit missionary who explored the Midwest in the late 1600s and who died and was originally buried at or near Ludington, Mich. Ludington was originally named Pere Marquette, and the railroad's name was descended from a predecessor line called the Flint & Pere Marquette (i.e., Ludington) Railroad. (Ludington, of course, was the F&PM/PM/C&O's terminal for its Lake Michigan steamer and carferry services.)

All of which means that, Midwestern pronunciations notwithstanding, it's pronounced the French way -- PEAR, with accent over the first "e" (or "PAIR", if you want).

atsf sp wrote:Boston we pronounce it "PEE-AIR" "MAAR-KET" but don't pronounce a plain market.

Back in the '70s I worked with Pere Marquette (PM) engineers out of Walbridge it was pronounced like in the quote above.

COEN77 wrote:

atsf sp wrote:Boston we pronounce it "PEE-AIR" "MAAR-KET" but don't pronounce a plain market.

Back in the '70s I worked with Pere Marquette (PM) engineers out of Walbridge it was pronounced like in the quote above.

Shame on them. Somebody should have given them French lessons and history lessons both. But when I went to work for the C&O in 1955, everyone I dealt with used the "right" pronunciation.