Sorry to break this to you Micky, but the guy who founded Nike says it's pronounced Nikey, as in, to rhyme with Micky.
Trouble is he only seemed to correct everybody about 25 years later. Old boys like me got used to the old pronunciation! A bit like Kim Bassinger later becoming Kim "Bay-singer".
Really old boys back in ancient Greece pronounced it rhyming with Mikey. Nike (Νίκη) is the Greek goddess of victory so I think they probably new how to say it.
Having looked at this in more detail, at the time Nike was named, the 'η' (now eta, then heta) was used to indicate rough breathing, meaning it probably would be more like Nikhgh than Nik-e, but certainly not just one syllable like Mike.
Will you be my friend? My four credits short of a Classics minor is used far too infrequently.
For what it's worth I'm in the process of moving to Eugene, OR where Nike was founded. We pronounce it "Nike-ee," but I try to be pretty laissez-faire about pronunciation given that I pronounce things strangely.
That said, "Knockaert" and "Belgiums" have been driving me MENTAL thank you so much for saying what is in my heart @Sillybilly.
Yanks who omit the final letter 'i' when saying Aluminium. Drives me nuts.
Me too, but I think they even spell it without the I.
We do, but I'd hate to let facts get in the way of a perfectly pedantic argument (genuinely, see above, I love me some pedantry).
Also, @Stig there are a lot of English idioms that would be understood here, but people will not understand you when you pronounce Yoghurt that way. It just does not resonate.
Lastly, FA, that qualifies you to be president of my country and have control over the largest nuclear armament in the world.
To quote Homer Simpson, "It's nucular dummy, the 's' is silent."
Lieutenant is pronounced Leftenant. It's not difficult America.
And Jagger, it's 'Off my cloud' not 'Off of my cloud'.
Okay so I've found myself answering all the Americanisms. WHERE'S THE "F"?!?!?! Do you same "in 'left' of" or "in 'loo' of" for lieu? It's a word with what I guess are French roots, and in French I believe it would be "oo" not "ef."
@Oakster, that's a North American thing. It's ironic because it seems to be the only "h" some of my English friends pronounce.
Lieutenant is pronounced Leftenant. It's not difficult America.
And Jagger, it's 'Off my cloud' not 'Off of my cloud'.
Okay so I've found myself answering all the Americanisms. WHERE'S THE "F"?!?!?! Do you same "in 'left' of" or "in 'loo' of" for lieu? It's a word with what I guess are French roots, and in French I believe it would be "oo" not "ef."
It's because it is.
You all manage to pronounce the 'F' in Elephant.
And you don't want to listen to what the French say - it's all made up 'Le' weekend my arse.
Not sure if its just a Canadian thing, our friends down south mght be able to confirm but up here they say
Erbs (ie Curbs without the C) instead of Herbs
It pisses me right off.
Think our yank cousins do that too. Bay-sil instead of Basil too.
People who pronounce Trousers as Pants as well.
Compared to the Yanks what the Canadians have done to our wonderful language is pretty mild, but still plenty of stuff that annoys.
Although, according to Bill Bryson, American English is more how English used to be spoken on these shores. (Remember many colonists were from areas like Suffolk, Essex [a genuine Essex accent is very similar to the Suffolk one], Devon and Cornwall.) It's just that we're continually moving on and they are not. For example, the Essex dialect is now almost dead south of Colchester and replaced by Estuary and Cockney.
Lieutenant is pronounced Leftenant. It's not difficult America.
And Jagger, it's 'Off my cloud' not 'Off of my cloud'.
Okay so I've found myself answering all the Americanisms. WHERE'S THE "F"?!?!?! Do you same "in 'left' of" or "in 'loo' of" for lieu? It's a word with what I guess are French roots, and in French I believe it would be "oo" not "ef."
@Oakster, that's a North American thing. It's ironic because it seems to be the only "h" some of my English friends pronounce.
Not sure if its just a Canadian thing, our friends down south mght be able to confirm but up here they say
Erbs (ie Curbs without the C) instead of Herbs
It pisses me right off.
Think our yank cousins do that too. Bay-sil instead of Basil too.
People who pronounce Trousers as Pants as well.
Compared to the Yanks what the Canadians have done to our wonderful language is pretty mild, but still plenty of stuff that annoys.
Although, according to Bill Bryson, American English is more how English used to be spoken on these shores. (Remember many colonists were from areas like Suffolk, Essex [a genuine Essex accent is very similar to the Suffolk one], Devon and Cornwall.) It's just that we're continually moving on and they are not. For example, the Essex dialect is now almost dead south of Colchester and replaced by Estuary and Cockney.
Not sure if its just a Canadian thing, our friends down south mght be able to confirm but up here they say
Erbs (ie Curbs without the C) instead of Herbs
It pisses me right off.
Think our yank cousins do that too. Bay-sil instead of Basil too.
People who pronounce Trousers as Pants as well.
Compared to the Yanks what the Canadians have done to our wonderful language is pretty mild, but still plenty of stuff that annoys.
Although, according to Bill Bryson, American English is more how English used to be spoken on these shores. (Remember many colonists were from areas like Suffolk, Essex [a genuine Essex accent is very similar to the Suffolk one], Devon and Cornwall.) It's just that we're continually moving on and they are not. For example, the Essex dialect is now almost dead south of Colchester and replaced by Estuary and Cockney.
Comments
Grrr!
For what it's worth I'm in the process of moving to Eugene, OR where Nike was founded. We pronounce it "Nike-ee," but I try to be pretty laissez-faire about pronunciation given that I pronounce things strangely.
That said, "Knockaert" and "Belgiums" have been driving me MENTAL thank you so much for saying what is in my heart @Sillybilly.
Also, @Stig there are a lot of English idioms that would be understood here, but people will not understand you when you pronounce Yoghurt that way. It just does not resonate.
Lastly, FA, that qualifies you to be president of my country and have control over the largest nuclear armament in the world.
To quote Homer Simpson, "It's nucular dummy, the 's' is silent."
@Oakster, that's a North American thing. It's ironic because it seems to be the only "h" some of my English friends pronounce.
People who pronounce Trousers as Pants as well.
Compared to the Yanks what the Canadians have done to our wonderful language is pretty mild, but still plenty of stuff that annoys.
You all manage to pronounce the 'F' in Elephant.
And you don't want to listen to what the French say - it's all made up 'Le' weekend my arse.
To give you a flavour, listen to these accents from Tangier Island Virginia. It's only a couple of minutes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E
Very well illustrated in this somewhat bizarre video about a shark.... The interviews with the locals gives us that full on Newfie sound
Nope, it's got to be Loo-tenant then.
Din-nisty
or
Die-nasty
have we got onto botswain and other nautical terms yet ?
It's pronounced Leftenant amongst our armed forces.
Somefink.