Previous thread on topic: How do you pronounce “coyote”?
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Kai-yowt when I was raised in Denver.
Koy-oh-tay now that I live in New Mexico where I actually seem them still alive…but at least I still use my turn signals.
I’m currently urban, but spent most of the first part of my childhood in the foothills of California out in the middle of bloody nowhere. I am a bit influenced by Spanish speakers, so I say the vowels more like the example here, but with a y instead of a j, unless I think about it and code-switch to a more mainstream English pronunciation.
ko-jo-tay
I took Spanish in high school
I kid
it varies in a gradient from ko-zho-tay to kie-o-tee. I’m not consistent
I picked the fourth, but also pronounce the y. ka-yo-tea
When one of my Philadelphia coworkers laughed at my pronunciation of coyote as coyote, I explained that I say coyote in Texan.
Urban - Kai-oat
My mom is from North Dakota, and her high school’s nickname was the Coyotes, so it’s been ingrained in my head that it’s kai-oat, not kai-oh-tea. It’s something about there are actually coyotes in the plains and the west, so the pronunciation of those who actually are around this animal should be used, not tv producers from back east.
Kai-oat (I grew up in a rural environment but now live in Denver, where they’re pretty common in the city’s parks).
I believe thee trickster god’s name is pronounced Koy-oh-tea, which would be good enough for me.
–Cliffy