Woolwich residents are used to hearing their town's name mispronounced. The 'w' that starts the second syllable either disappears into “Wool'ich” or gets replaced with an 'r' to make “Woolrich,” like the shirt company.

“We don't make the shirts.”

That's what Woolwich Town Clerk Jean Mank tells people she hears pronounce it that way.

When she hears “Wool'ich,” she asks the person if they're going to have a “sand'ich.”

“The 'w' is not silent,” Mank said.

Both mispronunciations of the town's name are a longstanding peeve for locals who know better, like Mank. She has lived in Woolwich all her life.

Wiscasset Budget Committee member Ray Soule grew up in Woolwich, too. He tried his best to help fellow committee members get the name right at their April 18 meeting.

Woolwich came up as the panel deliberated on its budget recommendations. One item selectmen have proposed would let Wiscasset start sending ambulances to Woolwich.

Committee Chairman Cliff Hendricks made Woolwich's second 'w' silent when he read aloud the ballot item.

Soule spoke up.  “It's Woolwich,” he said.

“If you're going to pronounce it, pronounce it correctly,” Soule said.

Hendricks was careful after that, enunciating every time he spoke the word.

As the discussion continued, member Norman Guidoboni avoided the potential for error. Instead of saying Woolwich, he called it “the town south of us.”

Soule offered to say the town's name for him.

From then on, each time Guidoboni's next word was about to be Woolwich, he paused, and Soule filled in “Woolwich.”

What's behind the phenomenon of Woolwich's mispronounced name? It's probably just a matter of dialect, according to speech and language pathologist Darcy Libby of Pandora Talks in Woolwich.

“People are capable of pronouncing the 'w.' But people in Maine are also capable of saying they park their cars,” Libby said, referring to the tendency for Mainers to leave out the 'r' that follows the 'a.'

As for the 'r' that sometimes replaces Woolwich's second 'w,' Libby said for some people that could be as simple as the Woolrich shirts, after all. It's so familiar to people as a brand name, Woolwich may come out that way, too, she said.

However, Woolwich may not be alone in its predicament. Libby is a Phippsburg native. “I would get mail sent to me in Pittsburgh,” she said.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.