apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

When I lived in Geneva, Switzerland I asked someone that I worked with if there was an Ikea store. I pronounced it: Eye-Key-A. He said that he had never heard of it. A few minutes later he came back to me and said "Oooooh! You mean, EEE-kay-A?"

Living in a bilingual french/english town in Canada, its a pretty clear division between the English speakers saying eye-kee-ah and the French speakers saying eee-kay-ah.

EEE-kay-A reminds me of Tarzhay (Target). If that's the proper pronunciation, I'll switch from eye-KEE-a.

similarly: Van Gogh (van-GO) as opposed to the properly spoken (van-gock), though not sure which syllable gets the emphasis. Anyone speak Dutch?

I pronounce it Eye-Key-A.

My old roommate who lived in Sweden for a little while always pronounced it EEE-kay-A. I kind of thought that that was a bit pretentious for an American to call pronounce it like that.

In Israel they say "ee-KAY-ah". I took me awhile to figure that out. Before that, when I asked how to get to "eye-KEE-ah" I just got funny looks.

I pronounce it the way the commercials pronounce it...Eye-key-ah.

yah, everyone I know from EU pronounces it EEE-KE-A or EEE-KAY-A. some of them who have been living in the state actually changed it to EYE-KAY-A but it's only because they are in the state. :)

I second Donald's comment on the US advertising pronunciation. I have a similar story with a world-traveled acquaintance who wondered when ee-KAY-ah was coming to her area in the US. She told us everywhere else she encountered Ikea in the world, it was pronounced ee-KAY-ah.

Is it an actual word that means something in the native language?

If it turns out to be one of those made-up marketing names, I wouldn't be surprised if it's intentionally flexible.

When I'm talking to my mother in German, I pronounce it ee-KAY-a. When I'm talking to my mother in English, I pronounce it eye-KEE-a... and then she corrects me and says ee-Kay-a ;-)

SMM-
Van Gogh is faun (short "a") gock, emphasis on gock. I can't really describe how to pronounce "g" in Dutch, it's gutteral, in the back of your throat.

SMM - I speak Dutch! It's not pronounced "van-go" like you pointed out, but van-gock is also not really quite there either. Instead of the "ck" in "van-gock" its a gutteral sound...you roll the sound in the back of the throat. Really hard for non-Dutch speakers so I see why Van-go is the better alternative! (PS Hebrew has the same gutteral sound!)

As for Ikea, after living in Europe I can confidently say that "eee-kay-a" is the European pronunciation, but I get made fun of here, where people say "eye-key-a". So whats right is up for grabs really. I'd go with the Euro pronunciation because the company is European!

Our Danish neighbor calls it "ICK-yee-uh."

I've always pronounced it "eye-KEE-uh" and now I feel sheepish. I guess it's like the difference between "Eye-raq" and "ee-rock".

I pronounce it "craigslist" because that's where it all ends up.

That reminds me of a clothing store that my sister and I used to go to in Hamburg - we were so excited about "hah und em" (H&M) coming to the states! Everyone else was looking forward to visiting "aitch and em."

I was raised in Germany, where they pronounce it "eee-kay-a" but here I say it the American way. You're all saying it wrong, but hey. When in Rome, do a Roman.

Ikea isn't a word in Swedish: according to that article (and something I saw in the store once) "Turns out that IKEA is an acronym derived from the first letters in [Ingvar] Kamprad's name, the first letter of his boyhood farm "Elmtaryd," and the first letter of his home village of Agunnaryd, Sweden."

I'm a big proponent of pronouncing things properly in the language your speaking. Eye-key-ah in English, EEE-Kay-a in French/other languages in which that pronunciation is natural.

Since when it is pretentious to pronounce a word correctly (as a previous poster indicated)? Even the name of a store? I've always pronounced it EE-KAY-A, which is the correct way. If people stare when I do, so be it.

Gah!! Typo!! I meant "you're speaking" not "your speaking"

Well, even if everyone in the EU says ee-kay-a, here everyone says eye-kee-a or else you'll get funny looks. I used to say ahn-deevs instead of N-dives (for endives) and even though I am thoroughly convinced I'm right, I've decided it was a losing battle and I should just pronounce the word the way everyone else in the US pronounce it unless I decide to move to France.

@ SisterRae: That's too funny - I was super excited when "achay ee emmay" started opening stores...

Word, ChristineBadina.

Readingglasses, it's pretentious to pronounce a word the way it's pronounced in a language other than the one you're speaking, because you're just showing off that you know how to pronounce it in a different language.* It's not "correct" to prounounce things as though you're all of a sudden speaking a different language, unless you have actually switched languages. Consider, for instance: the country which in English is called Hungary is called Magyarország in Hungarian. But you wouldn't call it that when you're speaking English because in English it's called Hungary.

For the same reason, when you're speaking English it's incorrect (and pretentious) to call the capital of France peh-REE rather than PEAR-iss, or to say EE-KAY-A rather than eye-KEE-uh.

*There are exceptions for things like pronouncing your hometown the way you grew up saying it if you're from another country, but presumably none of us grew up in Ikea, so that does not apply.

End rant.

Whenever I go there, the nice girl on the PA keeps telling me, "Thank you for shopping at eye-KEY-ah!" And I figure she should know what she's talking about...

Eye-Key-Ah for me I am assuming that's the same as eye-KEE-a so that's my vote! =)

IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd) and home village (Agunnaryd).

Learned that at the IKEA HQ from one of their reps. They always pronounced it eye-KEE-a.

I know heard of a woman who gave birth in an IKEA in London and she even named her doughter IKEA....does that count?

icky yah

There's commercials on TV and radop where they say the name - so i don't know who these mis-pronouncers are! (Probably the same people who refer to round bready things as 'baggles'. Argh!)

ChrisToronto, you just made me laugh a bit

Everyone I know from Europe, with the exception of England (including people from Sweden) pronounces it eeh-Kay-ah. In the US and UK, the pronunciation is Eye-Key-Ah. This is confirmed by Ikea commercials in the various countries. It's an acronym, so however the letter "I" is pronounced in that country pretty much dictates the way the acronym will be pronounced. Embrace the differences.

Someone said ee-KAY-ah to me and I had no idea what they meant. I think I only realized a few sentences later. I say eye-KEE-ah ;)

Since Ingemar on the commercials pronounces it "eye-kee-ya", I know I'm fine with my American pronunciation.

I downloaded a Swedish song once where the singer pronounces it "eee-kay-ah" and I'm perfectly willing to accept that as "the foreign pronunciation".

Let's move on to "McDonalds" vs."mac-do-nal" vs. "Mac-Do" vs "Ew."

This is just English vs. (indeterminate) European pronunciation. I supposed the Swedes have the correct form but I'm not going to say that unless I'm in Sweden/Europe because I don't think anyone here in my neck of the woods would know what I was talking about!

I just got back from Europe and was delighted with the several different ways my name was pronounced but I didn't suddenly start pronouncing it differently. And my Euro friends said it the English way when they were talking to me and the Euro way when they were talking about me to each other. Which is just so cute.

I used to work there and all of the training films, everyone from the corporate office, and even managers directly from Sweden said "eye-key-ah".

The commercials have the appropriate pronunciation ("eye-key-ah)." Think of the commercials as a media version of a personal introduction.

Dear Jenny, darling Jenny, misguided Jenny ... It is not pretentious to pronounce anything the way it is actually pronounced, ie a company rather than a city, as the company itself pronounces it. I wouldn't say Pa-ree for Paris, unless I am in France/Europe, but have no problem saying EE-KAY-UH. Why on earth is that pretentious? Methinks you might have a chip on your linguistic shoulder or perhaps an issue about control. In any case, why become hot under the collar about it? How I choose to pronounce a word is no concern of yours, nor should it be. Surely you/we have loftier concerns than whether or not our fellow citizens are pronouncing a particular word to our personal satisfaction :)

Also, I lived abroad for part of my life and am used to saying EE-KAY-UH. Am I to be condemned for that or must I conform to please the Americans around me? Night-night!

readingglasses, while I agree that proper pronunciation is always preferred, communication is a two-way street. Unless you are monologuing, you need to consider if the listener will comprehend you.

Besides IKEA is an acronym, so it can't have any linguistically accurate pronunciation. One could just spell the name aloud and be no more wrong than anyone who tries to make a word of it.

I think I'll go along with deneph's explaination that pronunciation depends on how the "i" is pronounced in language being used. I would also like to point out that I'd rather choose a pronunciation that will ensure that I am understood. If it's eye-kee-a in the US & UK and ee-kay-uh elsewhere than so be it.
I've learned from experience that you've just got to be flexible sometimes. Once my boss sent me off to find gee-van-chay pantyhose. I asked if she meant giv-in-chee. (I had never heard the brand Givenchy spoken before.) She proceeded to correct me a few times that she wanted gee-van-chay. So off I went to the store looking for "Jivanchez" or anything that might be close. Even the sales people had no idea what I was talking about. I must have wasted almost an hour wandering in the pantyhose section before just picking up what I thought it was in the first place.

I pronounce it eye-kee-ya, though after having learned Japanese, I'm compelled to say ee-kay-ah.

This all came about when we had a Japanese exchange student stay with us, and she laughed when I suggested we go for "carry-yokey".
"Do you mean ka-ra-oh-keh? Heehee."
Now I'm the one always telling people, "No, not carry-yokey, ka-ra-o-keh!"

I'm from The Netherlands. We pronounce it ee-KAY-a. I've also lived in Spain, and there they say ee-KAY-a as well.
I think the Swedes themselves also say it like that. And since it's a Swedish company... Anyone from Sweden here?
But I guess it's the same with city names, they are written and pronounced differently in different countries.
Try to pronounce 'Utrecht' in Dutch if you can't speak Dutch, or anything similar...

Btw, oftentimes Dutch people pronounce graffiti as 'gravity', just because they don't know any better!

Here, a Swedish IKEA commercial:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q99vR-zQQ2w

Dear nrkist ... even acronyms have a generally accepted pronounciations ... morning! As per pronunciations, I have a house near a town named for the capital of Egypt ... however, the natives there pronounce it KAY-ro rather than the more logical KAI-ro. Ugh. Similarly another neighboring town, which is spelled Delhi and named for the Indian city but, alas, is locally pronounced DELL-HI, rather than Dell-EE. Makes my skin crawl but I have learned to live with it.

I live in the land of IKEA. The proper Swedish way to say it is
EEE-kay-A

There "i" is pronounced like the English "e"

oops, i meant "their" doh.

BTW. It stands for "Ingvar Kamprad" as the fist 2 letters and where he is from "Elmtaryd" "Agunnaryd" a small village in Sweden.

My experience has been the same as pretty much everyone else's: eye-Kee-ah in the US, and eee-Kay-a in Europe.

Thanks NLtoNUtoNC and heylucy!

ChrisToronto, how does Jonathan Adler pronounce it? Surely, you must know.

I suppose he'd rather die (you, as well) than even think of the place and its wares.

this thread was funny. swedish meatballs for everyone!

Hmm..I can't make it through all the comments so maybe somebody's already said this, but NLtoNUtoNC, there are lots of "European" pronunciations! Things are pronounced one way where you lived in Europe and other ways in other places in Europe. I couldn't even begin to think of what one would mean by assuming there's a general European pronunciation - Italian, Polish, British?

Readingglasses--you come off as very pretentious in your posts. You should pronounce it based on whichever language you're speaking. People will think you're full of yourself if you still choose to pronounce it differently than the norm of the culture you're communicating with. Reminds me of students who study abroad and then return to America thinking they are natives of the countries they studied in, thumbing their noses at their old American friends and believing they are more sophisticated than everyone else.

Readingglasses,

Why does it make your skin crawl?

I grew up in a neighboring town ... my family, and those of our friends, were there in the mid-1700s.

People like you make our skin crawl.

Are you the "poet" whose "Cairo, N.Y." was published in the latest New Yorker?

Move to Hudson. No pronunciation problems, plus great shops.

Of course, they're on Warren Street only, but you could just focus your gaze straight ahead and try to ignore the icky time-worn, working-class bits.