Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 October 7

= October 7 =

Contemporary pronunciation of Chicago
I hope I'm not opening a can of worms: I noticed that the new trailer for Chicago Med distinctly pronounces the place name with tʃ, i.e., the chicken sound. Is this an acceptable pronunciation in contemporary American English? Dumbox (talk) 14:58, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Pronouncing the "ch" of Chicago like the "ch" of "chicken" is not correct. Maybe someone's trying to be funny. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:03, 7 October 2018 (UTC)


 * If you're talking about this, it's being said the normal way, like "sh". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:12, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Some people (and there's a certain amount of anecdotal evidence online that the pronunciation may be especially prevalent in California) do use the [tʃ] pronunciation. I've seen it suggested that it may be due to the influence of Spanish (cf. "Chicano"). Deor (talk) 15:23, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't think there's a naturally-occurring "sh" sound in Spanish, so a native Spanish-speaker might indeed say "chee-cah-go". If the OP could cite a specific video clip, it would help. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:27, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Here's a Ted Talk supporting that view, AND explaining a mystery in algebra as well - HiLo48 (talk) 10:11, 8 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I sometimes here its nickname Chi-town pronounced chai-town instead of the more usual shy-town. No one pronounces it shi-town like the first syllable of Chicago. Rmhermen (talk) 16:40, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Shy-town would be the normal pronunciation of that nickname. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:44, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks to all of you. I can't seem to find the particular promo I saw on TV on youtube. I found this one, where it sounds like tʃ a couple of times, but that may be triggered by the preceding n (on Chicago...); the last time round he definitely says ʃ. Thanks again. Dumbox (talk) 08:23, 8 October 2018 (UTC)