I have always wondered why people pronounce country names differently. Some examples would be the way Americans would say Iraq as 'eye-rack' and we would go 'ee-rug', or Afghanistan as 'eff-gen-nis-ten' rather than 'arf-gar-nis-tarn' like we would. I mean clearly it is due to their accent which affects the way they pronounce words but in my opinion, country names are not something you can pronounce any way you want.One very entertaining and famous example is the Miss Teen USA contestant who answered a question about why some Americans cannot locate their country on a map and she mentions Iraq.
Checking a couple of sources, I got mixed results.
Dictionary.com and Ingolo.com click here! both use the American pronunciation while
Howjsay.com click me! on the other hand has the other pronunciation more commonly used by Asians, or can I say non-Whites? Should there not be a standard when it comes to country names?
Another recent example is Haiti, 'hay-tee' or 'high-ee-ti'? BBC claims it 'hay-tee' but comparing it with Hawaii, I would think it is the latter.
Time to set the record straight once and for all? :)
