> Kyah! It's a Spanish name; pronounce it like it
> is.
>
> (Using heavily Americanized spellings)
>
> Pone'-say-day-lay-own'
>
> Not chih-lee, chee-lee. Not Chih-Lee, Chee-lay.

But we're speaking English. If I were speaking Spanish I'd pronounce it in Spanish, but I'm not. I pronounce it the way it is in English. PONSS day Lay-OWN. Charlemagne is SHAR-le-mane, not Shar-le-MAN-ye or however it is in French. If we should pronounce Chile as CHEE-lay then by all accounts we should pronounce Vienna as VEEN, Berlin as Bear-LEAN, Illinois as E-leen-WAH, Bavaria as BUY-ern, and Warsaw as Var-SHA-va. Don't even ask about Munich.

-eric "When in America, speak as the gringos" sleator
Sun 13 May A.D. 2001

Epilogue: I looked up "Chile" in the dictionary (Random House Webster's College Dictionary, 1999) and the only possible acceptable English pronunciation of it is CHILL-ee. No CHEE-lay. Sorry.