There are two ways to pronounce “Missouri”—neither is right and neither is wrong. It’s become a geographic, political, and generational shibboleth. This article doesn’t mention Nevada, but that’s a state that seems equally divided (“Neh-VEH-duh” versus “Neh-VAH-duh”). →
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No, there is only one way to pronounce Nevada, unless you want to be wrong:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/23/how-do-you-pronounce-nevada-youre-probably-wrong/
Also, Oregon: Or-e-ghin v. Or-e-gone (if you catch my nonIPA standard drift) (But I think the “correct” way is to say “Or-e-ghin”.)
Good grief man, you are on the slippery slope of lingocultural oblivion. Calling Neh-VAH-duh, Neh-VAH-duh” is like conceding “Vawh-shing-dawn” to the Germans. There isn’t a Spaniard in the world with any confusion regarding the pronunciation of Nevada.
We might want to ask the Missouria tribe how to pronounce their name before we take the advice of some modern era settler’s son.
coincidentally, I just came across this great piece about the various ways Americans pronounce “Iran” and “Iraq” : https://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/09/25/eye-rate-about-eye-ran/
Miami was pronounced as My-am-uh by locals until the 60’s or 70’s.
Either you didn’t think through your phonetization of the former or we have very different ideas of how phonetization should look or I’ve heard a different set of pronunciations. For me it’s always been between:
Neh-vaa-duh (as in semantics)
Neh-vah-duh (as “va” in nirvana)
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nevada
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/semantics
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nirvana
To my way of thinking, the “eh” in “veh” rhymes with trek: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trek
I agree with Hans. The “correct” pronunciation of “Nevada” has the “a” of “cat” in the middle, and I don’t see how you can spell that “eh”.