Pronunciation is everything in radio.
We work very hard to find out how various words and names, particularly Alaskan Native terms, are properly spoken so that we can pronounce them in our radio and web broadcasts.
Rep. Benjamin Nageak is a Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 2013. We have heard his last name pronounced several different ways.
KTOO and Alaska Public government reporter Andrew Kitchenman asked Nageak to pronounce his name during a taped phone conversation.
Kitchenman wrote in a staff email: “The key is this ‘g’ in Inupiat is a sound that we don’t really make in English — kind of soft ‘g’ in the back of the throat that we don’t make in English.”
“I’ve stuck with ‘Nah-gee-AK’ as a pronouncer, since I’ve heard him say it this way on the House floor, but (nag-ee-yak) is OK too,” Kitchenman said
