Editing Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (section)

==Etymology==
The city name was derived from the French term for the nearby rapids, which were called ''Les Saults de Sainte Marie.'' ''Sainte Marie'' (Saint Mary) was the name of the river and ''Saults'' referred to the rapids.
(The archaic spelling ''Sault'' is a relic of the [[Middle French|Middle French Period]]. [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|salta}} successively became [[Old French]] {{Lang|fro|salte}} ({{Circa|800|1340}}), Middle French {{Lang|frm|sault}}, and Modern French {{Lang|fr|saut}}'','' as in the verb {{Lang|fr|sauter}}, to jump.)

Whereas the modern {{Lang|fr|saut}} means simply "(a) jump", ''sault'' in the 17th century was also applied to cataracts, [[waterfall]]s and rapids. This resulted in such place names as [[Grand Falls, New Brunswick|Grand Falls/Grand-Sault]], and [[Sault-au-Récollet]] on the [[Island of Montreal]] in Canada; and [[Sault-Saint-Remy]] and [[Sault-Brénaz]] in France. In contemporary French, the word for "rapids" is ''rapides''.

{{lang|fr|Sault Sainte-Marie}} in French means "the Rapids of Saint Mary" (for a more detailed discussion, refer to the [[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario]] page). The Saint Mary's River runs from [[Lake Superior]] to [[Lake Huron]], between what are now the twin border cities on either side.

No [[hyphen]]s are used in the English spelling, which is otherwise identical to the French, but the pronunciations differ. Anglophones say {{IPAc-en|ˌ|s|uː|_|s|eɪ|n|t|_|m|ə|ˈ|ɹ|iː}} and Francophones say {{IPA|fr|so sɛ̃t maʁi|}}. In French, the name can be written {{lang|fr|Sault-Sainte-Marie}}. On both sides of the border, the towns and the general vicinity are called '''The Sault''' (usually pronounced {{IPAc-en|s|uː}}), or '''The Soo'''.