The Anishinaabe name for Detroit is Waawiyaataanong , and a common English-friendly pronunciation is roughly wah-WEE-yah-TAH-nong. It’s the name used by Anishinaabe peoples for the Detroit area.

Pronunciation

A simple way to break it up is:

  1. Waaw = “wahw”
  2. iyaa = “yee-ah”
  3. taa = “tah”
  4. nong = “nong”

So you can say wah-WEE-yah-TAH-nong or wah-wee-yah-TAH-nong , depending on how carefully you want to match the vowel length.

Quick note

Different sources online sometimes give slightly different English approximations, but they point to the same Anishinaabe place name for Detroit: Waawiyaataanong.