Yes, you misunderstood me. I said -igh, not i.
So it seems. And based on previous replies, there is no obvious basis in the Arabic or Hebrew pronunciation.
I was interested in your tilde suggestion, but it seems there is no palatal nasal sound in either Arabic or Hebrew.
By the way, I was also intrigued by Schama’s pronunciation of Elephantine (a place in Egypt) as ele-fant-eeny. It sounded really odd, and I would have assumed it to be pronounced like the English word elephantine. But when I checked, it turned out to be the correct (or a correct) pronunciation.
Just resurrecting this thread to mention that Dr Alice Roberts, presenter of the documentary series “The Incredible Human Journey”, clearly used the “signy-eye” pronunciation in episode 1 of that series, when discussing possible migration routes out of Africa.
They are clearly getting this pronunciation (shifted vowel and extra syllable) from somewhere; maybe it can be traced back?
I too grew up (in the UK) with the 3-syllable “signy-eye” version - which I too would have heard in church. I see that the variant is noted in the Wikipedia article as a “traditional” pronunciation:
The supporting references are two 19th-century biblical pronunciation guides, if anyone wants to dig further to try to figure out where it originated.
ETA: ninjaed by DPRK, or rather I didn’t notice that he already posted one of those references.
My guess is that the people who say “sigh-a-nigh” are the same people as the ones who pronounce sherbet “sherbert” and athlete “ath-a-lete.”
To hijack this, most people say “iz-REAL” but I also hear “iz-RAY-el.” Which is it?
It’s “IZ-rah-el”, but since English-speakers have a hard time with consecutive open vowels, it ends up sounding like “IZ-rail”.
When I hear it with 3 syllables, it’s always “sigh a nigh” like cyanide.
The way I’ve heard it done in 3 syllables is more like SEE-NAAH-EE.
:dubious: I have never in my life heard anyone say that. I am also in NY same as you. No one says it that way.
This is how it would be pronounced in German, and presumably also in Jiddish
A person who speaks Spanish might pronounce it that way.
I hear it that way a lot as well (we have hospitals with Sinai in the name). I think it’s a combination of older people that have just always called it that as well as people thinking that’s the actual name.
That is, I think if you ask someone that says ‘sigh a nie’ to write it, they’ll write ‘siani’ as opposed to ‘sinai’.
The two words look very similar and if you think it’s spelled Siani, it would be acceptable to say ‘sigh a nie’.
Take all that and add in that your friends and family all use the same mispronunciation it it just gets reinforced.
In Hebrew, it’s “see-NAI”.
Or people who heard it that way before ever seeing the word in print.