I grew up in Eastlake, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. We always used to pronounce it Ky-ah-HOG-a.
east side native, and definitely pronounce it using the first “four syllables with a HO” option… Lived there from 1958-1972, so this pronunciation is nothing new.
But aren’t East Siders allowed to be Browns fans too?
ky-uh-HOGE-uh… And I grew up in West Akron / Medina.
My feet are almost wet, and it’s ky-HO-guh. We leave out a syllable because we can.
Same here (not quite as far west as that). I assume I pronounce it that way b/c that’s how the newscasters said it.
–Cliffy
This for me, though I don’t live especially near Ohio and don’t remember ever hearing it spoken out loud.
I grew up in San Diego, where there’s a town out in the mountains called “Cuyamaca” and pronounced “kwee-a-macka”.
I assumed the place in Ohio worked the same way.
Westsider, with a sense of humor.
I tell my out of town visitors it’s pronounced key-YOO-kuh
Hey, you’re an Akronite. What would you know?
Only 4 years.
I hail from Stow, however.
I’m in California, and have never been within 500 miles of the Cuyahoga river. I pronounce it “ky-uh-HOGE-uh” (in my head anyway, since I don’t think I’ve ever had occasion to say the word aloud).
The first one. I’m from Columbus. My SO from Niles says it that way as well.
Ky-uh-hoag-uh for the river, but I voted cu-hoag-uh because for the city, I always pronounce it like the Pretenders song in my mind, and that choice looked so lonely in the poll.
Which of course was played at the beginning of “Major League”, which is the definitive Cleveland movie, so that settled it for me.
Raised in southern Ohio, I pronounced it ki-uh-HO-ga until going to college in Springfield and meeting my first Clevelanders; I must have met more westsiders than eastsiders, because I learned to pronounce it ki-uh-HAWG-uh, and still do today.
Is #1 supposed to indicate a hard ‘g’ or a soft ‘g’?
I pronounce it “Kie-a-HOE-ga”, which I think is your #1. That’s also how it’s pronounced in one of my favorite Adam Again songs, River on Fire.
I could be happy, and you could be miserable
I’ll pull a metaphor out of the air:
Cuyahoga River on fire.
ETA: D’oh! Just saw Thudlow Boink beat me to the song.
There is no long “o” sound!!
East Sider born and bred. I say it with hog, not hoe. I rarely ever heard anyone say it with hoe. It was almost always hog. The East Side-West Side cultural divide is notorious, but I’ve never heard of it being a difference in pronouncing the river.
“ky-uh-HOGE-uh”
I live in Akron, and my street dead ends into the river.