Djungelskogs and Sagoskatts of Australia, do I have some news for you. You know IKEA, that big ol’ Swedish shopping centre that you love so dearly? The one with the wooden furniture, cool-sounding product names and maze-like structure? Well, you’ve been saying the name incorrectly.
Most of us in Australia have probably been calling it “EYE-key-uh’” our entire lives, with nary a care in the world save for how many meatballs we’re shoving in our gob after a shop.
However, as Twitter users have just rediscovered, that’s not how you’re supposed to pronounce it. At all. Try saying “eye-key-uh” in Sweden and they might stab you in the eye-key.
It’s actually pronounced ‘EE-kay-uh’, if we’re going by the Swedish language rules. Yep, this news has simply throttled us off our Renbergets.
Twitter has recently caused a bit of a storm over the issue, positively losing their marbles over this notion, which they do every year or so.
This time it was kicked off by one of the very few unproblematic YouTubers, MacDoesIt, who expressed his confusion via the blue bird app (Twitter).
“So IKEA is pronounced like (EE-key-uh) not (EYE-key-uh) and no one was gonna tell me?” he wrote.
So IKEA is pronounced like (EE-key-uh) not (EYE-key-uh) and no one was gonna tell me?
— mac (@MacDoesIt) October 11, 2021
Naturally, this sent the English-speaking folks on the internet into an absolute frenzy. Sorry friends, but the Swedish gave us IKEA in the first place, so I’m pretty sure they get to decide how the word is said.
https://twitter.com/whata_dis_grace/status/1447375880469221376?s=20
i refuse to acknowledge this pic.twitter.com/dt2a5M0mab
— cam \⁷ ☽ JONGHO BIRTH (@cscamcorder) October 11, 2021
the proper swedish pronunciation is ‘EE-kay-uh’ actually????
— j (@jadeosullivan__) October 11, 2021
So should you and your friends and fam still keep saying “Eye-Key-Uh” even though it’s wrong?
Well, yeah, you should. It’s pretty standard to hear that pronunciation in Western countries, and ads from IKEA America / Australia use this pronunciation pretty regularly.
So yeah, you’re in the clear, and you’re definitely not butchering the word. Just don’t expect anyone to agree with your pronunciation choice in other parts of the world.
The entire non-English speaking world pronounces this non-English name like that.
— Joana Eça de Queiroz # +18 (@Jo_EQ) October 11, 2021
Yeah I’m just gonna delete this tweet from my EYEs
— Chungus Files: Unearthed (@Nerd0Vision13) October 11, 2021
Most of Europe already knew this yeah lol
— sexy sad sapphic (@theirdemesne) October 11, 2021
we call it Ee-kay-ah in Europe ???? but when i speak english i say Eye-key-ah, dumbing it down for the common folk y’know ????✨????
— ???? Sodalite ???? (@sodalit3) October 11, 2021
Hell, even a simple Google search will tell you the proper way to say the company’s name.
And if you’re still confused, there are even videos on how to pronounce the word properly.
Because I love my IKEA Djungelskog, I am going to be saying “Ee-Kay-Uh” from now on when I’m in front of him. It’s the least I could do.
