My friends and i have been debating upon how to pronounce the name of Tanzania. Of course i was telling them that there pronunciation was worng, perhaps i was wrong... Apparently the 'z' is emphahised and stands quite prominantly when pronounced. Yes i can imagine the smiles on all your faces after reading this... :) I found a bloggers insight below:
Pronunciation lesson-
I never quite believed my Mom when she tried to re-educate me on how to pronounce this country’s name after her visit to East Africa several years ago. But, she was right (Mother’s are always right, right?).
I noticed that Kenyans pronounced “Tanzania” differently than I did. I also notice that there were several different variations. After our visit to Tanzania, the most common pronunciation among East Africans was “tan-Zan-ia.” So, I have been working really hard to take “tan-za-Nia” out of my vocabulary and replacing it with the proper emphasis on the “Zan.”
Lester postulated that the pronunciation may be a result of politics. When Zanzibar united with Tanganika the founders may have just combined parts of each word: Tanganika and Zanzibar could have easily become ” tan-Zan-ia.” We have no idea if this is true, but it’s not a bad observation!
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