Italkah?
Hello,

browsing through the profiles of some English teachers and tutors from the UK, I came across a couple of times in 2 of these prounouncing Italki like "Italkah" (I- TOH - KAH). I wish to understand if this is accepted, since, as a matter of fact, it reminds me of Ebonics, US. Is this, maybe, some specific accent from the UK? I hear most people from the UK say (I-TOH-KEE) and only once I found someone saying (I-TOH-K-I) so saying the "I" at the end like "I" standing alone.

Many thanks

Question

Italkah?
Hello,

browsing through the profiles of some English teachers and tutors from the UK, I came across a couple of times in 2 of these prounouncing Italki like "Italkah" (I- TOH - KAH). I wish to understand if this is accepted, since, as a matter of fact, it reminds me of Ebonics, US. Is this, maybe, some specific accent from the UK? I hear most people from the UK say (I-TOH-KEE) and only once I found someone saying (I-TOH-K-I) so saying the "I" at the end like "I" standing alone.

Many thanks

Answer

Nobody pronounces 'i' as 'ah'.

A final 'i' can be pronounced as either 'eye' or 'ee'.  Words ending in 'i' which are seen as part of English vocabulary tend to be pronounced 'ee', for example, 'ski'.  Other words, especially those which have Latin roots, can be pronounced either way. For example, 'fungi' (the classification of organisms including mushrooms and toadstools) can be pronounced either 'fung-ee' or 'fung-eye'. The prefix 'anti' (meaning against), tends to be pronounced 'ant-eye' by US English speakers and 'ant-ee' by GB English speakers.

As for 'italki', it's a made-up word, so you can pronounce it either way, with either an 'ee' or 'eye' at the end. But not 'ah'.

Answer

"Accepted" is a tricky concept. Accepted by whom?

There are many accents and styles of speaking which I could argue are not standard English. But that's purely a matter of perspective. If millions of people speak in a particular way, they might argue that I am the one with the funny accent when I visit them.

Language evolves with time, is influenced by contact with other languages, and pronunciations change. The spellings of English words were standardised in the sixteenth century, after printing was invented, but the sounds of the words have changed since then, and people in different regions already pronounced things differently anyway.

Most of Shakespeare, for example, sounds very strange today and many of the original jokes and puns no longer work. The name "Ajax" is pronounced today to rhyme with "wax", but when the plays were first performed it rhymed with "awakes" and sounded like the slang term for a toilet. Haha, the joke was on the Greek hero.

For this reason, I don't like IPA (" Itɔ:kI:"). There is no single right way of pronouncing anything. There is only one test: whether people can understand you.

(Having said that, things get very confusing if your English is a mixture of different styles. You should, of course, try to talk like James Bond and kill anyone who says "Italkah")

Answer

Do you have a link to one of those pronunciations?

Answer

prunounced like this: Itɔ:kI:

Answer

Simply put.. that must be their accent. There are as many English accents as there are people.