Ky-o-tee or Ky-oat for coyote?

[Anonymous]

Which do you say?

For the record, ky-o-tee is completely wrong since the word coyote comes from the word coyotl, which is a Nahuatl word that is pronounced 'coy-yoat'.

[Anonymous]

I say ky-o-tee, because that's the way I've always heard it spoken. It's more of a regional thing, than anything else.

As for your "for the record" comment; Webster's and Oxford's English dictionaries each have it listed with both pronunciations. So, no, one is not "completely wrong". They are, in fact, both correct.

[Asker]

the dictionary also states that n*g**r means an ignorant person, but we all knw that's bullshit. Ky-oa-tee is the Spaniard accent, and is about as accurate as saying that family and famiry are both correct.

[Opinion Owner]

Those examples are nothing alike. We're talking about pronunciation, not definition.

A lot of words in the English language are derived from root words in other languages, then modified over time, by the way they're spoken. So saying that a specific word should be pronounced a certain way, because of it's origin, doesn't really work in English.

Coyote is spoken multiple ways, depending on your geographical location, that's all. I'm not advocating for one over the other, by any means; I simply pointed out that even multiple, respected dictionaries say that both are correct, so this shouldn't even be an argument.

[Asker]

Family and famiry.

[Opinion Owner]

Yes, repeat the same two words that didn't help your argument in the first place (nor make any sense), in an attempt to invalidate my entire point.

That's mature.

[Asker]

The point is that the word family in English being pronounced improperly by a japanese person doesn't make the pronunciation famiry correct despite it meaning the same thing so when a person pronounces the word coyotl as ky-o-tee because of the Spanish mispronunciation coyote, you are mispronouncing the word.

coyote is a loan word that is mispronounced by the speakers and is the equivalent of a japanese person mispronouncing and misspelling corn as "coronuh", accepting it as a loan word in their language, and the world accepting kor-ruh-nuh as a proper pronunciation of the word.

[Opinion Owner]

The problem with that reasoning is that the word is no longer "coyotl". If you're referring to the original, root word, then you're correct about it being mispronounced.

However, your question is about the word "coyote"; an English word that is only based upon the original "coyotl". Since we're referring to the pronunciation of an English-adapted word, then both "ky-o-tee", and "ky-ote" are correct.

Using your example of the mispronunciation of the ROOT word, then EVERY word in the English language is pronounced incorrectly, since English is not an original language.

Based on that logic, "coyotl" is not pronounced properly, either, since it would have, originally, been a latin word, that was appropriated into the Spanish language.

[Asker]

Except coyotl is the Nahuatl word, a language completely separate from all European languages, and spoken by the Incas.

[TadCurious]

I've always said "ky-oat." They're very interesting animals.

[TadCurious]

It's amazing how these animals have occupied all the habitat that once was occupied by wolves. The eradication of wolves led to this vacuum that coyotes eventually moved into. They're highly opportunistic and are surviving (and thriving even) in urban areas. I read a few years back that one was seen in Central Park in New York. How the hell it made it's way across one of those bridges into Manhattan is beyond me. But anyway, thanks for MHO and have a great Christmas!

[JustinTheGreat]

Ky-o-tee
My mom and I were just talking about this, and she said ky-oat is how they say it down south.

[Asker]

ky-oat makes more sense since coyotl is what the indigenous people of meshica called them

[nativepride73]

I don't think I've ever heard someone say ky-oat always ky-o-tee. That's the way I say it too.

[jwhit]

I say Ky-o-tee.