Was watching a cooking show and heard the host pronounce it PAH-prih-kah. I’ve always pronounced it pah-PREE-kah. Which is more correct? Is it a regional thing? I think my pronunciation is the more correct one, but I was well into adulthood when I learned turmeric was pronounced TUR-mer-ic, not tur-MARE-ic 
pap-REE-kah
This calls for a poll!
- PAH-prih-kah
- pah-PREE-kah
- Other
0
voters
Good idea, thanks!
Except it is a bad poll missing @hajario’s suggestion.
I could be wrong, but I took @hajario ‘s pronunciation to be the same as mine, only with a slightly different phonetic spelling.
Is @hajario’s pronounciation any different from pah-PREE-kah? I’d pronounce pap-REE-kah and pah-PREE-kah the same way. I honestly didn’t include it in the poll because took it as the same pronunciation as the OP’s, just spelled a bit differently. I assumed the key was which syllable the emphasis is on.
And ninjaed.
I see 3 syllables with the middle one either having a p sound or not.
I pronounce the same way as @hajario.
I say papRIka, but i think PAPrika is also correct.
When it’s waterlogged it clogs your pipes
“I stressed the drains down with paprika”
I see we have a couple ‘ PAH-prih-kah’s in the poll. @Der_Trihs and @Procrustus, where do you hail from, if you don’t mind my asking? I’m curious if the pronunciation is a regional thing.
California, as it happens.
Was the chef talking about chicken paprikash? The paprika itself is called PAP, but the dish is called PAH.
My husband’s uncle used to call the spice paprikash.
Deja vu.
I think both pronunciations are correct, but PAH-pri-ka was British and used to be used more here. Modern Americans are switching over to Pah-PREE-ka, which is now the way I say it.
3 flat syllables pah-pree-kah. None of them emphasised.
If you’re using Hungarian paprika and want to pronounce it the Hungarian way, almost all words have the first syllable emphasized.
No, he was pronouncing the spice, not the dish. It was Christopher Kimball on Milk Street, FWIW.
Seeing that I also responded to a similar thread in 2008 (thanks Discourse) I think I like my answer better there.
“Accent on 1st syllable, but then again I speak Hungarian.
After reading this thread I have the weirdest mental image of someone running into battle swinging a giant sword screaming “PAPRIKKKAAAAAAA”!!”
According to the OED, there are two American pronunciations differing in the quality of the first vowel (schwa or CAT), but both have the accent on the second syllable. There are also two British pronunciations, one of which has the accent on the second syllable (same as American with schwa) and the other with the accent on the first syllable.