I consume enough Chicago area media to occasionally hear the state referred to as “Ellinois” rather than “Illinois.” How should the state’s name be pronounced?

Perhaps the “El-“at the beginning of some vocalizations is a downstate/Midland accent:

While we’re on the subject of how Downstaters can’t speak English, at least not as beautifully or gracefully as Chicagoans, here a few other ways they talk funny:

• They ask “Do you want some melk?” and declare “I’m from Ellinois.” (Darren Bailey of Clay County, the Republican nominee for governor, does this. Beyond the pronunciation, a Chicagoan would never say “I’m from Illinois.”)

Maybe the pronunciation has been altered multiple times throughout history? One source suggests:

Interesting, but not as interesting as how the Miami word irenweewa became our Illinois. McCafferty explains that in Miami pronunciation, it is the next-to-last syllable that is stressed. The French, accustomed to hearing the final syllable of a word stressed, took the next to last syllable in irenweewa to be the final word’s syllable. “The French also changed r to l,” adds McCafferty, “and slightly altered the quality of the second vowel from e to i.” Which is just so French. Then they wrote this mishmash down in accordance with the conventions of 17th century French spelling. Voila! Illinois…

So – the French misheard the Indians, and the Americans misread the French, anticipating Rauner and Madigan in a tradition that is now more than 300 years old.

The word Illinois departs from American English as well as from Miami Algonquian in a second respect. McCafferty notes that in American English you would expect Illinois to be pronounced ILL-i-noy, not ill-i-NOY, as it would be in French. And while we do not pronounce the ois in the current French style, we at least respect the original to the extent of leaving the concluding s silent.

Why not end with a YouTube pronunciation guide?