During my time in the British school system, I was told that the correct pronunciation of the American state of Michigan was "Mitchigan", and that I would correct my pronunciation while I was in said school system, although if I went back to the provincial wilds of America and mispronounced it Michigan again, that was of course entirely my own affair.
"Michigan" is in fact a French (the French, of course, were the first European settlers of the area) transliteration of the Native American "Mee-shee-gah", or "land of many waters". As such, the American pronunciation is basically correct, rather than loutishly provincial as implied by a particular schoolmaster (and of course, by extension, the British school system), and the British is analogous to such unsophisticated behaviors as prounouncing Chopin as "Tchopin" or Mozart as "Mozart" (as opposed to "Motsart"), or putting one's hands in one's pockets.
Perhaps the British school system will stand a slight correction to its geography curriculum.
Kind regards to our friends across the pond,
Bob Rodes
"Michigan" is in fact a French (the French, of course, were the first European settlers of the area) transliteration of the Native American "Mee-shee-gah", or "land of many waters". As such, the American pronunciation is basically correct, rather than loutishly provincial as implied by a particular schoolmaster (and of course, by extension, the British school system), and the British is analogous to such unsophisticated behaviors as prounouncing Chopin as "Tchopin" or Mozart as "Mozart" (as opposed to "Motsart"), or putting one's hands in one's pockets.
Perhaps the British school system will stand a slight correction to its geography curriculum.
Kind regards to our friends across the pond,
Bob Rodes
