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"Naïve" is confusing to me, the standard UK pronunciation (I don't know IPA, sorry) is "nigh-eve" (nigh like thigh; eve like Steve).

It seems like the spelling would be naiïve if we wrote it as we speak it. I understand that the word was adopted from French, but the "na" stem in French wouldn't give a "nigh" sound; I think the French pronunciation is "na-eve"(?).

So, where did the double vowel sound of "nigh" in naïve come from. Is there a logic or reason behind it?

Related questions with answers covering writing of naive/naïve, trema, and diaresis:

pbhj
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  • The French pronunciation seems to be /naiv/ according to my bilingual French dictionary (by Oxford). – Laurel Aug 04 '23 at 18:08

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Not a linguistics expert, just another Brit who also pronounces it almost 'nigh-eve'

I think what you're hearing is a stray 'y' in the middle. More 'nigh-yeve' or even 'na-yeve'.
This is likely just caused by the run-on nature of the two vowels together. [Elision, diaresis, dipthong, vowel reduction? Experts?]

As soon as you say it anything faster than pronouncing it for a 4-year-old, you will naturally tend to run these sounds together. If you don't, your listener would perceive an unnatural 'gap', like a sci-fi writer compelled to insert apostrophes everywhere in alien names just to make them hard to pronounce - with glottal stops where none should have gone before ;)
…which would end up sounding like 'na… …eve'

Also see - TV Tropes: Punctuation Shaker, or any Star Trek episode, or James Cameron Avatar movie.

Tetsujin
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  • That's probably it, but the linked question (which the question search; and pre-submission match suggestions didn't raise!) answers my enquiry. I think the top answer there is a more formal version of your answer, yours is easier to read for me, as a layman. Thanks. I'll delete in the next couple of days. – pbhj Aug 04 '23 at 22:53
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    @pbhj: Hi, as the one who marked your question as a duplicate, I just wanted to clarify: no need to delete your post! With sites this large, it is inevitable that some questions will come up a second time and duplicates play a helpful role in pointing future searches to the older question. If your question is now answered between Tetsujin's answer and mine, you don't need to do anything further and I hope marking it as a duplicate wasn't discouraging. – herisson Aug 04 '23 at 23:20