pronunciation of caribbean!

Both, either. Depends on where you come from.

To - mah - to or To - may - to ?

LOL. Both. I say "Royal Cah-RIB-ee-un", but "Care-uh-BE-un" Sea.

LOL. Both. I say "Royal Cah-RIB-ee-un", but "Care-uh-BE-un" Sea.

Me too.

Oh... I like these challenges. I graduated from highschool from Care-uh-bee-un High School, Ponce... but I swim in the Ca-rib-ian sea. Do you think the the Caribbean is called the Caribbean because of the Carib indians... or are the indians named after the sea? Hmmmm... I never thought of the connection til this post.

Whatever we call it, I love it.

Just out of curiosity....what do locals call it:

cara-bee-an or ca-rib-ian??

random question, i know. thanks to all who play!

Several of my stateside friends and family have asked me this question, assuming that since I live here I would know.

FTR: I say both.

I noticed that BBC Caribbean Radio announcers who are from the islands pronounce it both ways, but mostly Care-eh-BE-an. Many dictionaries consider both ca-RIB-be-an and ca-rib-BE-an to be correct.

How would the indigenous "Caribs" have said it?
Historically speaking, most "Carib" indians didn't call themselves "Carib". Rather, they had different names for themselves depending on which island they lived on. Carib, Taíno, Garifuna, Galibi, Kali'na, Kariña, Calinago, Warao, Nepuyo, Arekuna, Acawaio, Arhuaca, Pemon, Kapon, Lokono, Wapisiana.

The second vowel in many of these indigenous names is a LONG "i". And indeed, many historical resources spell the word "Carib" as "Caribe" (Ca-REEB) to preserve the "long i" pronunciation of the native speakers, and the stress on the second syllable. (As well, the K, G and C in these tribalb names all being linguistically so similar as to be the same)

This means that the pronunciation "Ca-REEB" --which you hear some locals saying, is perhaps the most authentic. Add "ean" and you should pronounce it "Ca-REEB-ean." The inflection stays on the REEB, just like it does when we add "ean" to Shakespearean. In other words, nobody says "Shakes-pear-REE-an" so why do we say "Ca-rib-BEE-an"?

Thus.... If we use "shakespearian" as our model, then we should say "ca-RIB-bean."
If we follow the pronunciation of the "original natives" then we should say "Ca-REEB-ean."

However, vocalization/vowels do often change when adding suffixes. CHRIST with a long "i" becomes a short "i" when you add the suffix ian: KRIS-tian. That's probably why the Ca-REEB became "Ca-rib" in Ca-rib-bean". The suffix shortened the vowel to ca-rib-ean, and people needing to inflect something decided to inflect the BEE, instead of the RIBE.

English speakers who say "ca-rib-BE-an" normally wouldn't do this to other words. We don't say "krist-TEE-an". But oddly enough, some islanders and my Spanish sister-in-law DO pronounce "christian" as KRIST-tee-an (with a long 'e'). Which is to say, we're totally mixed up.

To further muddy the water, I've heard some local speakers pronounce BOTH long vowels, and with both inflections:
ie, Ca-REEB-bee-an, and Ca-reeb-BEE-an. Take your pick.

This is a long way of saying that language is a real melting pot.

James Kilpatrick RIP.

The rule I obey is The Rule of Duke Ellington, "If it sounds good, it IS good."

(yes, I'm a word geek, studied linguistics and actually majored in native american archaeology in college).

Here's a great link to "Carib" resources.. http://www.centrelink.org/Papers.html

Correction: In the sentence: "second vowel in many of these idigenous names...." long 'i' should read long 'e'.

i.e. "Careeb"

Billy Ocean makes it sound like "cara-byoon" in his song "Caribbean Queen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkXV5O5GfJ8

I go with carreebean

Carib Indian.....Carib..E...yan...