I wonder why so many scholars of Islam pronounce Caliph as "CAY-liff" & not "cah-LEEF"

[Bucky]

Have I been saying it wrong all these years? I'm asking as World History teacher for over 20 years. I've always assumed it was just a British eccentricity, like the way they mispronounce "con-TRAH-vuh-see" or "SHED-jule" (don't even remind me what they do to "Junta'')

But recently I've see a few videos on YouTube where accredited scholars, normal American scholars mind you, some of Middle Eastern origin, use this sure-sounds-eurocentric pronunciation of "CAY-liff" for Caliph. Does anyone here know what's the correct way to say this? (I seriously don't need to repeat my infamous "purrogative" incident of 2003)

[Kali]

1. I always thought it was the same as you do

[Bucky]

5. So does Wikipedia, sort of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ar-khalifa.ogg gives the sound I expected

Mispronoucing it is just Britons being British

[Karadeniz]

2. Looked in Google. One site gives UK pron. as califf, long a...US pron. With short a, both with the

Accent on first syllable. One site said the Urdu pronunciation was khaleefa, closer to your version.

[Bucky]

4. Going with the Wikipedia pronuciation guide

They give the Anglo-centric mispronciation (Cay-liff) as how to say it in English, but then the Arabic work "khalifa" emphasizes the second syllable ==> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ar-khalifa.ogg

[Midnight Writer]

3. I'll go with The Clash pronunciation.

[Bucky]

6. nice

But when you ask a Brit to pronounce foreign words correctly, they're all like "I really don't like it"