It is regional. You may hear the media say eye-raq, but I hear ear-raq more often locally.


>>>>>Don't pretend to defend the offence of using offense or defense in pretence of your defence.
>>>>
>>>>I suppose, as a Canadian (a bastard nation between the 2 empires of UK and US, the worst word for me is LICENCE/LICENSE. For some reason, I get tripped up depending on whether it is used as a noun or verb.
>>>
>>>I thought you guys just used "Purrrrmit" instead. :-)
>>>
>>>Just reminded me - Naomi - there's a whole load that are similarly a noun or a verb, depending on the stress on the word, e.g.
>>>
>>>PER-mit (a licence), per-MIT (to allow)
>>>PRO-ject (what geeks work on), pro-JECT (cast, throw, as project a picture on a wall)
>>>
>>And is it PROW JECT or PRAH JECT?
>
>Strictly speaking, (in the UK) it is PROW JECT, but I haven't heard anyone pronounce it that way for years, they say "O" as in "lob"
>>
>>Is it Eye talian or It alian? The country is not called Eye taly.
>
>I'm afraid the "eye" is a N. American thing only :-) like EYE-ran, EYE-raq. But I think Tony Blair has been listening to his ally so much lately that the other day, on a news interview, I swear I heard HIM say EYE-raq, or somewhere in between the two, like IR-raq.