How Do You Pronounce Gyro?

…as in the Greek Gyro sandwich.

I once stopped by a Johnny’s New York Style Pizzeria and bought a gyro for dinner.  I proclaimed, “I’d like a yeer-oh.”  They asked, “You mean a jy-roh?”  Not wanting to make such a small thing a big deal, I just said “yeah.”

It got me thinking though.  I know it’s supposed to be pronounced “yeer-oh,” so why would people working at the pizzeria be so confident that it’s pronounced “jy-roh?”  Maybe I should pronounce it “jy-roh” because after all, we don’t go around calling China “Zhongguo”, Mexico “May-hee-ko,” or Germany “Deutschland.”  After some searching online, I found my answer:

It’s pronounced “yeer-oh” everywhere except New York City.  Even though I was outside of New York City, Johnny’s New York Style Pizzeria is “New York Style,” so they pronounce it the way you would hear it in a real New York pizzeria:  “jy-roh.”  They probably do that in New York City so the gyro sandwich isn’t confused with the hero sandwich.

So gyro is pronounced “yee-roh,” unless you have a New York-style gyro.

Then again, most Americans would pronounce gyro as “jy-roh” no matter what.  You might want to just pronounce it “jy-roh” anywhere in America, so you don’t sound pretentious.