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Oregan

River
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A river name in the poem; likely an older or variant form of Oregon/Oregon River reference.

Detailed Definition
Bryant uses this river name in a sweeping landscape passage: "Where rolls the Oregan." It is a proper-name reference that many readers will not recognize without context, especially because the spelling is unusual.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound” uses an older poetic spelling associated with Oregon; “Beyond Oregan’s river, pine-dark mountains rose” keeps the historical geographic flavor; The spelling may signal nineteenth-century exploration or frontier imagination; “She crossed Oregan in an old map, then wrote the living river back” invites critical attention to names.
Additional Notes
"Oregan" appears as a proper-name river reference and is obscure to most readers.; Found in the poem, Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
Also Known As
Oregonian Beaver State Pacific Northwest Cascadian
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