# How do you prounce Connecticut? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 31, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892 "2009-07-31T17:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/1 "2009-07-31T17:51:30Z")
Is it Connecteecut? Or Conneteecut? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/2 "2009-07-31T17:53:58Z")
The latter, according to [m-w](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connecticut). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/3 "2009-07-31T17:54:41Z")
The middle “c” is silent, similar to the initial “c” in “crap music.” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/4 "2009-07-31T17:57:07Z")
I don’t pronounce the C just before the T, have never heard anyone do so (except jokingly), and do not see it as an alternate pronunciation in my dictionary. It’s pronounced kuh-NET-tuh-cut (all schwas except in the stressed syllable) rather than kuh-NET-tee-cut. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/5 "2009-07-31T18:00:54Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > The middle “c” is silent, similar to the initial “c” in “crap music.” _Seriously?_ ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/6 "2009-07-31T18:12:30Z")
So why the middle “C”? Some years ago my friends took me to Mackinac Island, seems that this is pronounced Mackinaw, right?. Then there’s Kansas and Arkansaw. And you merkins call us Britons for the way we mangle words 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/7 "2009-07-31T18:20:19Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > _Seriously?_ It’s a jibe at rap music, along the lines of this: **Jean Harlow was at a dinner party and kept on addressing Margot Asquith (wife of British prime minister Herbert Asquith) as MargoT (pronouncing the ‘T’). Margot finally had enough and said to her “No Jean, the T is silent, as in Harlow.”** ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/8 "2009-07-31T18:23:55Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > So why the middle “C”? > > Some years ago my friends took me to Mackinac Island, seems that this is pronounced Mackinaw, right?. > > Then there’s Kansas and Arkansaw. > > And you merkins call us Britons for the way we mangle words 😃 Hey, at least we can spell “Chumley” without using 87 letters. 😛 Actually, I imagine the middle C was pronounced originally, but lost to elision like the MONDE in Cholmondeley. ---
**Author:** ![leandroc76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@leandroc76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leandroc76)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/9 "2009-07-31T18:27:24Z")
I’m from CT. We pronounce it kuh-NET-teh-\*Kit \* ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/10 "2009-07-31T18:29:05Z")
I frequently admonish Thais that the middle C is silent. Same with the S in Illinois. Early in the movie _The Ice Storm_ (1997), the Toby Maguire character, who goes to school in New York, is going for a visit to his family in Connecticut, and the train conductor clearly pronounces the middle C. Apparently, it was just to be a clown, but it did make me wonder for a while if I’d been wrong all along by treating it as silent. ---
**Author:** ![JonathanTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JonathanTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonathanTheRed)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/11 "2009-07-31T18:29:22Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > And you merkins call us Britons for the way we mangle words 😃 I spent a haypenny to buy some Woostershire sauce from Mr. Fanshaw. Yeah, don’t you Brits go hasslin’ us 'bout no silent letters. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/12 "2009-07-31T18:29:44Z")
connet-eh-cut if you say “connect-eh-cut” people will laugh at you, or more charitably, assume you are joking. The name “Connecticut” comes from a name given to the area by the Mohegan tribe, Quinnitukqut, which if you can make your way through it, actually sounds a lot like the way “Connecticut” is pronounced today. (kinnit-ukut) As you’ll note there is no middle “c” in the original name. The reasons for so many weird spellings, is borrowed native words, and not all of them had a written language, or if they did there were unfamiliar sounds, so the person who wrote it down, tried the best the could with what they had to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/13 "2009-07-31T19:04:42Z")
I have a bad habit of pronouncing the “C” because when I was in school we had to learn to spell the states and unless I said it, I couldn’t pronounce it. So I say “Connecticut” as Con-neCT-ti-cut. It may be wrong but it’s always spelled right 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/14 "2009-07-31T19:09:37Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Some years ago my friends took me to Mackinac Island, seems that this is pronounced Mackinaw, right? Even more annoying is the fact that there’s Mackinaw City on the mainland and Mackinac Island offshore. There’s also Sheboygan, WI and Cheboygan, MI, the latter pronounced like the former is spelled and thus I’m fairly sure they’re pronounced the same. They aren’t even all that close to each other, one being in the middle of the western shore and Lake Michigan and the other being on the southern shore and northern Lake Huron. There’s also Bellefontaine, OH which is locally pronounced Bell-fountain, and nearby Versailles, OH which is pronounced Ver-sales. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/15 "2009-07-31T19:15:26Z")
What’s with all you guys ending it in “cut”? It’s “kit”. Well, a schwa, but still. “Cut” looks wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/16 "2009-07-31T19:18:14Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > There’s also Bellefontaine, OH which is locally pronounced Bell-fountain, and nearby Versailles, OH which is pronounced Ver-sales. Don’t forget Wapakoneta, pronounced Wopkon. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/17 "2009-07-31T19:19:45Z")
[Frenchman] Silly English Con-necticuts! [/Frenchman] ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/18 "2009-07-31T19:20:26Z")
> [@leandroc76](#): > > I’m from CT. > > We pronounce it kuh-NET-teh-\*Kit \* This is exactly how I pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/19 "2009-07-31T19:23:33Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > It’s a jibe at rap music Oh, I know, I was just wondering why a tired joke at the expense of a music form that’s been around for like 30 years now was at all useful in a thread about saying “Connecticut.” ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/20 "2009-07-31T19:26:49Z")
I generally say “C-nektikit” (pronouncing the first syllable “see”) or “Cunettikizzy” I’m pretty sure no one else does, though… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892.md?page=2)