People who pronounce Kenya as Keeenya

[Solty]

My cousin was born in the 1980s, in the UK, to British parents. When she was 3 the family moved to Kenya. Her mum and dad were teachers so lower middle class.

My cousin is now in the UK living and speaks of her childhood as if she grew up in 1920s colonial Kenya. She is dreadfully posh and insists it is Keeenya.

When I was growing up (1950s and 1960s) everyone pronounced it Keenya (we were not posh), then it started changin, which may have coincided with the arrival of Kenyan immigrants in the UK. Though that does not explain why your cousin's family pronounce it that way.

I've wondered this. Worked with a woman who lived there in the 70s who pronounced it (in the 2010s) as Keenya. As she'd lived there, I presumed there was some socio-linguistic reason for it I didn't know!

It was originally pronounced as Keen-ya as that's how the name of the country which derived from the name of a mountain in Swahili was pronounced. (Or so Google tells me) it was later anglicised to fit in with most other words with a short /e/ vowel sound.

It's I like EYEbeetha

and EBeetha

tomato tomayto 😂

I guess it’s dated - both my parents said “Keenya” and I don’t - they both spent a decent amount of time there in the 70s. But I say Kenya, obviously.

https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/XLI/CLXII/46/9056?redirectedFrom=PDF

This explains how it went from Kenya, to Keen-ya and then back to Kenya.

Didn’t it change the pronounciation when it gained independence? I think it’s older people (much older, I’m late 50s!) who use the old pronounciation, and even then only if they haven’t moved with the times. AFAIK it’s as offensive as calling Zimbabwe Rhodesia still.

My mother was born in kienya as she pronounces it.

It's also called tanzaneeya (or Rhodeesiya)

Looks like the opposite tbh. That Keen-ya is the way it would have been pronounced in the local language.

I don’t know if it’s true, but i read that the first president after independence had a name pronounced with a short “keh” sound (President Kenyatta) and the country genuinely changed to mirror this as a statement of their independence.

i (again vaguely remember) think that prior to this the name was originally derived from a famous mountain which had the “kee” pronunciation.

so neither technically wrong, but “kee” probably associated with colonialism today by default.

"To the ancient Kikuyu and Kamba tribe members viewing Mount Kenya from a distance, the rocks and glaciers that form the peaks, resembled the black and white plumage of a male ostrich.
The Kikuyu named the mountain “Kirinyaga” that means “the area of the ostrich”.

The Kamba people have a slightly different accent and pronounce Kirinyaga as “Kiinyaa”. As the Kambas were the first people the European explorers encountered, their version became the one used by and so became Mount Kenya. The country was later named after the mountain.* "

Really? I thought they were separate?

They are two other different countries.

Kinoa?

😂

Kenya is definitely not called Tanzania. With that being a whole different country.

Pre-independence it was always Keeen-ya. Post-independence it became Ken-ya.

Don't take geography lessons from @goingdownfighting.

Kenya is not the same country as either Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika) or the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

I had a professor at uni who was born and raised in Kenya. He pronounced it Keenya.

What are you on about?

Tanzania is what was known as Tanganyika. Rhodesia is what is now Zimbabwe.

I assumed @goingdownfighting was just giving examples of her mother's weird pronunciation rather than stating that all those countries are the same

Are teachers lower middle class? Asking for a friend

I did too. I actually felt it was quite clear.

It's the old pronunciation. I remember a Joyce Grenfell monologue where she played a posh lady going to the school reunion of her boarding school, and talking about how she and her husband had just moved back to England after living in "Keeenya... but you have to call it 'Kenya'" now...

I wouldn't think much about it, just a generational difference.