Why do Americans pronounce centaurs "centars"???

[Casimir Liber]

Every time I hear this (just been listening to dungeoncast episode) it drives me nuts, like fingernails on a blackboard...there is a 'u' in it, so is "Centaur" like "Dinosaur".....aargh

 

[Marc Radle]

Ha!
I have a similar reaction when I hear Brits say ‘aluminium’ when it’s pronounced (and spelled!) aluminum.

 

[BookTenTiger]

In America we use the traditional dwarven pronunciation, and in Europe they use the elven.

 

[DemoMonkey]

As with many words, Americans omit the "u" in Centaur. "Centar"

Whereas in Canada, we spell it "Centaaurs". Because we love to add an "a", eh?

 

[MGibster]

In the Treaty of Washington (1871), Great Britain ceded the word centaur to the United States as an act of contrition for allowing Confederate war ships to use Liverpool as a port to launch raids against Union forces. The United States in turn agreed to the water border between the state of Washington and British Columbia as the Crown desired.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Anyways it's pronounced cent-oo-rs, right? Like the "au" in "beauty."

 

[BookTenTiger]

Someone advised me that the pronunciation is elementary. That is, we should be pronouncing it centgoldr.

 

[Bill Zebub]

We do it because we can. We love mispronouncing words from other cultures, just because we know the rest of the world will eventually say it our way, and we get a kick out of how irate that makes some people.

If you're ever in the states on an American ISP you'll discover that we have a whole private Internet just for coordinating our mispronunciations.

 

[Morrus]

Also see “minn-o-tars”.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Either pronunciation is fine: Centaur - Wikipedia

In Attic it was a hard "k" and the au was pronounced like in "sauerkraut" (approximately).

Κένταυρος​

Everything is ok. No need to worry.