This topic should yield some fun answers. Here are mine:

1) sugar bird (:D)

2) Charlotte aMALya

3) Yost

4) Key

5) Ca-RIB-ee-an (have friends who say Care-a-BE-an, though)

Thanks Margy Z 🙂

I have been all over this site and a few others with mixed info...and most of the online dictionaries do not offer the online pronunciation for the words I listed. Thank you! 🙂

i'm pretty much with margy... and you can also pronounce the bird name as written (cute, margy!).

some also say "banana keet" - there's a restaurant on tortola that goes by the same name. great spot, btw.

as for the caribbean, it depends on how it best falls in the sentence, in my experience. i've said it both ways.

IMHO
2 -Charlotte Ah- Ma- Lee
5 - always hear both -

I hear Amalie mostly like Exit Zero states Ah mah LEE
And although I hear Caribbean both ways, I tend to lean towards Margy Z's way.

It just really depends on where you are from. I was just thinking about this this morning. One of the senators wants to introduce legislation to have street names on St. John and I thought how that could make things more confusing because of the differences in continental accents and West Indian accents. Even common words like water and mango sound very different coming from my Midwest mouth compared to my West Indian husband.

Charlotte Amalie - "town"!!

charlotte amalie is an actual name, and it is pronounced "SHAR-lot ah-MAH-leeya" although many pronounce it as they will and it's always recognized which makes it acceptable... but since it's someone's name i prefer to pronounce it as it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Amalie_of_Hesse-Kassel

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Charlotte+Amalie (pronounced)

1) bananaquit - as written

2) Charlotte Amalie... Shar-lot -Ah-Mah-lee.... Or Sha-lit-tAh-mal-e... with a St. Thomian accent... one word 🙂

3) Jost Van Dyke.... Yost

4) Waterlemon Cay.... usually just Waterlemon.

5) usually Ca-RIB-ee-an

--Islander

Oh!!!!! You guys are great!!!! Thank you!!! I won't embarrass myself and tell you all how I really thought some of these words were pronounced! 🙂 Being from Boston...I will have to try hard to pronounce the 'r' in Charlotte..lol in addition to the pronouncing Amalie correctly! This really helps!!! Thanks again to all! 😉

I find pronunciation improves in direct relation to the volume of rum consumed. Of course communication and comprehension tend to suffer.

Ha Chris! Rum tends to turn my Midwest accent into a West Indian accent. I don't notice it, but it makes my husband smile 😀

stjohnjulie

LOL
Moved from the UK when I was 5, grew up in NY, college in PA and have lived in TX for 30+ so I do not really have any distinct accent. That is until I reach the "threshold" and I start sounding like Bert in Mary Poppins. Probably some return to the womb kind of thing going on according to therapist. 😉