topic Pronunciation your strong point? in The Round Table

Pronunciation your strong point?

cee-dee — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 14:21:35 GMT

Why is pronunciation so strange?

For instance take the countries Albania, Lithuania, Mauritania and Romania. They all end with "ania" and that last bit is pronounced "ay-nee-ah". However, when we get to Tanzania, the prononunciation of that is "Tan-zah-nee-ah". Why? Just wondering that's all..........

No wonder people learning to speak English have a job mastering the perculiarities of the language?

Re: Pronunciation your strong point?

roger_roger_over_and_nowt — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 17:05:18 GMT

It's pronounced Tanz_ania depending on where you come from.

Re: Pronunciation your strong point?

cee-dee — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 18:27:16 GMT

That's not illustrating the sound of every syllable.

Re: Pronunciation your strong point?

auctionmike1 — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 11:57:28 GMT

Tanzania as a state has only existed since the early 1960s and was a union between the former British colony of Tanganyika and the island sultanate of Zanzibar, so I guess they kept the Zan sound from Zanzibar to remind everybody of where the new name came from.