2725: Saying ‘Either’: Either Way is Acceptable Jun 6, 2024

‘Either’ has two pronunciations: /ˈiːðə(ɹ)/, i.e. EE-sound, or /ˈaɪ.ðə(ɹ)/, i.e. AY-sound. Of course, technically it has even more possible pronunciations than merely those two, but only in the normal way that different accents articulate one sound or another distinctly. Here, the fact that the initial vowel can be produced differently by the same person ad hoc, without raising eyebrows in basically any dialect, is remarkable.

It would seem now in both the US and the north of the UK prefer with /iː/, while in the South of the UK and some small pockets in America /ˈaɪ/ is preferred, which is also probably more traditional, though historically, a third option /eɪ/ (i.e. rhymes with ‘way’) was also used and would likely have been closer to the Old English origins. 

All of this above applies to the negative version, ‘neither’.