How To Pronounce Caribbean

How do you pronounce Caribbean? Although many tourists and most American newscasters prefer to say "ka-rib-e-an," this is a corruption of "ker-a-be-an," the pronunciation truest to how the Carib ("ker-ib ") Indians pronounce their own name.

The regional beer (Carib) also is pronounced "kar-ib," not "ka-rib-eh."

Remember, too, how the word is said in all the advertisements for the Walt Disney Pirates of the Caribbean film series. It was pronounced "ker-a-be-an."

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the phonetic division of Caribbean into “ker-ə-bē-ən” was first recorded in 1772.

By the way, the Caribs say "po-ta-tow," not "po-tot-tow," and they should know. Potato is a Carib word adopted into English.

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