I'm kind of fuzzy on this. I commonly hear people pronouncing Bonaire two different ways. Some say "BOWnair" (first syllable rhymes with Bow like bow tie) and others say "BONair" (first syllable rhymes with Bon like Bon fire. I love the place but am not sure how to say it. Help!

Kelly,

I would tend to think most are fuzzy on that. I used both during my stay.

I relate it to 'tomato, tomahto', each being correct.

People will know where you are talking about, no matter how you pronounce it.

I once read that there are three other Bonaire's in the United States, mostly in the South. I'll bet they have their own way of saying it, too.

How about using Papiamentu...Boneiru? BO NAY RU

One of the US Bonaires is in Georgia.

I was trying to think how my kids pronounce it.
We tend to go for the Bo nair version with more emphasis on the nair part.

another one is in okeyhoma...i was looking for a 10 day forecast for bonaire once and was a bit surprised to see snow forecasted ;-)

oh well, even if AA doesn't know where bonaire is we do...

So A¥A could have sent Jake and Linda to Goegia or okeyhoma???? Good thing A¥A didn't know 'Bonaire'!! They might not be home yet.

Actually, the AA folks in San Juan called it Bon aye ree. Very irritating.

Jake

That San Juanian pronunciation would be fairly close to how one would pronounce Bonaire in Spanish. Buenos Aires means the same thing as Bonaire, and it certainly gets all kinds of pronunciations! We have a Portuguese friend who has told us "native" pronunciations for Magellan (as in Straits of...) and for Christopher Columbus (the Portuguese claim he was one of theirs), and most of us Americans would be hard pressed to say those as they were originally pronounced.