"Nəxʷx̣áʔəy".
Moses smell the roses, is it that hard to copy and paste?

Nu-Ha-A is an awful approximation of Nəxʷx̣áʔəy. A lot closer: Nuk-whah-eye. Of course, there's no good options when you're trying to approximate Salishan words in English.

It's Lake SMOKIAM. Please check the spelling.

@1: It didn't work when I tried to copy and paste, unfortunately.

@3: The DNR page has it as Lake Smokium.

There's a Salish (Lushootseed) keyboard to make typing such words easier:
http://www.languagegeek.com/salishan/lus…

When the first Europeans and Anglo-Americans came to the area in the 1880s and earlier, they came up with anglicized spellings like "Tulalip" for "dxʷlilap"; I imagine that if the name "nəxʷx̣áʔəy" had been spelled by those same settlers, they'd have come up with something like Noowhyeye.

What most people would rather have is a phonetic iPad or Droid app that sounds out the Salish or other native WA tribal word or phrase.

So that they at least could hear what it's supposed to sound like.

I would like to see a preference for Anglicized versions of native names whenever possible. The native names are distinctive and more appropriate in most cases than the obscure British bureaucrats and blundering European conquerors that are often honored. But you can't expect millions of residents to use a pronunciation system that is foreign to everyone except a few hundred native speakers and scholars.

First up, Mount Tahoma instead of Mount Rainier. Rename the entire length of the Duwamish/Green River to the Duwamish River. There's no common native name for the Columbia River, so let's just call it the Oregon River (and move the counties that contain it to the state of Oregon.) "Whulge" is a bit ugly for Puget Sound, so I might make an exception there.

On a related note outside of the scope of this commission, we should also rename Pierce, Thurston, Mason, and Jefferson counties after major rivers to Puyallup, Nisqually, Skokomish, and Hoh counties. (King can stay now that it honors MLK.)

It's Lake SMOKIAM. Please check the spelling.

I'd like to be on this committee.