My boss at the Academy of Letters used to head the National Archives. Here’s a story he told over coffee the other day.
Some decades ago a delegation of Swedish archivists was driving across the American Midwest to visit a Mormon microfilming facility. Stopping in a small town for lunch, they noticed that it had an unusual name in a Native American language. At a fast food restaurant, the head of Stockholm’s town archives asked the cashier,
“Excuse me miss, we’re from Sweden and this place has such an unusual name. Could you please tell me how to pronounce it?”
The young lady stared at him for a moment, and then said loudly and slowly,
“BURR-GERR KING!”
