# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/21 "2009-07-31T19:39:00Z")
> [@leandroc76](#): > > I’m from CT. > > We pronounce it kuh-NET-teh-\*Kit \* I’m from Long Island We pronounce it kuh-NET-uh-cut 😉 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/22 "2009-07-31T19:45:13Z")
Try living in Cuyahoga County; even people who’ve lived here their entire lives can’t agree on its pronunciation. ---
**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, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/23 "2009-07-31T20:01:58Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > 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.” Well, it gave me entree for one of my favorite quotes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/24 "2009-07-31T20:17:24Z")
koNEteekah (I think I got that right in English phonics). Or, in Spanish phonics, konética ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/25 "2009-07-31T20:22:38Z")
/kə. **ˈ** nɛt.ə. **ˌ** kɪt/ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/26 "2009-07-31T20:38:07Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > 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. And pity the poor colonists who lived in quiquichtiqok. Thank god they renamed it Mystic 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/27 "2009-07-31T20:38:46Z")
Was the Connecticut spelling originally from an English-speaking person? I know that many of the early colonies were inhabited or influenced by French, Dutch and German immigrants. I tried doing a search on the etymology, but no one goes any further than citing the Algonquin origin. I love to blame the French for these kinds of things; maybe it was an English adoption of a French spelling for an Algonquin word? ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/28 "2009-07-31T20:54:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > 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. I came in here to mention this very movie. It’s the only time I’ve ever heard the middle C pronounced. ---
**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, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/29 "2009-07-31T21:04:06Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > 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 How can you talk about Mackinac and Cheboygan without mentioning Sault Ste. Marie? I defy anybody who hasn’t been told to properly suss the pronunciation of _that_ one. “Soo Saint Marie” Like most annoying things in the world, this is the fault (“foo?”) of the French. ---
**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, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/30 "2009-07-31T21:31:15Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Was the Connecticut spelling originally from an English-speaking person? WAG: You can find some early spellings with an “h” in the plact of the middle “c.” My guess is that in the original Indian language, that “h” was actually a rendition of some aspiration or breathy sound before the “t,” but some speakers ignored it completely. The middle “c” survived as an artifact in the formalized spelling, but the pronunciation by this time had already been established. Again, just a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/31 "2009-07-31T22:09:05Z")
> [@JonathanTheRed](#): > > Like most annoying things in the world, this is the fault (“foo?”) of the French. Note that “sault” isn’t pronounced “soo” in French, but rather “so”. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/32 "2009-07-31T22:40:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Then there’s Kansas and Arkansaw. A lot of the old timers in Colorado call the state ‘Ar-kan-saw’ and the river ‘Ark-ans-as’. It seems to be dying out though and settling on The state pronunciation for both. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/33 "2009-07-31T22:54:25Z")
In the movie _Holiday Inn_, Fred Astaire’s manager attempts to find out from a concierge where Fred Astaire has gone. Told that he has said he was headed to Connecticut, the manager asks why he didn’t stop Fred Astaire. The response: “How could I stop him when I do not know which way is Con-nect-ti-cut!?” When I was in Kansas with a cousin for three weeks in the mid-70s, in a town called Larned at the junction of the Pawnee River and the Arkansas River, the residents faithfully referred to it as the Ar-kan-sas River, just as spelled. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/34 "2009-08-01T01:05:38Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > koNEteekah (I think I got that right in English phonics). Or, in Spanish phonics, konética I’ve never heard anyone omitting the final “t.” ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/35 "2009-08-01T01:49:32Z")
> [@c\_goat](#): > > > [@leandroc76](#): > > > > I’m from CT. > > > > We pronounce it kuh-NET-teh-\*Kit \* > > I’m from Long Island > > We pronounce it kuh-NET-uh-cut > > 😉 I’m originally from CT and now live on Long Island. I pronounce it kuh-NET-teh-Kit. I’m starting to pronounce the other one Lawn-Guyland. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/36 "2009-08-01T02:20:43Z")
The medial -t- s are odd to me. If I (a Californian) were to spell my pronunciation, it would be _Cunneddicut_, with the final _cut_ rhyming with _put_, not _cut_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/37 "2009-08-01T05:24:45Z")
I say “cuh-NET-uh-kit”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/38 "2009-08-01T09:18:25Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone omitting the final “t.” It’s like the teeniest weeniest t in the world, often; if there’s anything behind it, it dissapears, like the -z at the end of my real name (which gets pronounced only when it’s the last word spoken or when the speaker is a foreigner). At least when I was in NH and Philadelphia; I don’t think I ever needed to pronounce Connecticut while in Miami. Then again, I’m still trying to get over how can Americans mute any t at all and I discovered “tweeny” as the pronunciation for 20 in 1987. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/39 "2009-08-01T10:52:54Z")
And as Gramps Simpson pronounces it: _It’ll be a long time afore I recognises Missora_ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892/40 "2009-08-01T11:08:00Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > How do you **prounce** Connecticut? I think the real question should be: "How do you spell “pronounce”? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prounce-connecticut/504892.md?page=3)