I’ll admit I was rather ignorant growing up and the first time I had a conversation with someone and I pronounced Iran as “I ran” everyone roasted the shit outta me and shut me down, which like fair whatever. But my point is the pronunciation is secondary if you get the concept; that’s kinda the point of language and accents in general. If we have to pronounce every country or place as its residents call it then we should roast and ignore every English speaker that says “Germany” instead of Deutschland.

  • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    61·
    15 days ago

    Well that’s just the way American English works. Diphthongs are sprinkled everywhere. Pronouncing it as /aɪˈræn/ is just following the common practices.

    It would be funny if we started to pronounce America as /eɪˈmeɪr.ɪ.kə/. I think that would be a completely consistent way to say it. Lots of words get butchered the same way, so it’s only fair.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      6·
      15 days ago

      And lots of countries have different names in different languages. Not just different-sounding, but entirely different sometimes.

      Americans call it ‘Japan’, but Russians call it (a version of) ‘Nippon’.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        15 days ago

        Those are pretty interesting twists too. Just look up the etymology of “tea” and “chai”. It boils down to different trade routes and dialects.