Pronounced CHAN-KA-LAY.
“Pronounced CHAN-KA-LAY.”
CHAN, as in Charlie CHAN? I don’t think so. There was no “short a” pronunciation. I lived in Turkey and I NEVER heard it pronounced as CHAN, as in Charlie CHAN; I always heard it as CHON, as in rhyming with LONG.
Like Yalova. It was pronounced YAH-LO-VAH, not YA (as in LAD)-LO-VA.
Also, you left out the second syllable AH. You went from CHAN straight to KA. And even the native Turkish speakers included that inflection.
The terminal LAY is probably more correct than the terminal LEE, though I remember hearing it both ways. I guess it depended on who was saying it, and how it sounded to me. A native Turkish speaker rattled it off like lightning (Cok Cibuc?), and at that warp speed my American ear likely couldn’t tell the difference between AY and EE.
My Turkish was CHOKE FINAH (it’s phonetic, and typed on my western keyboard).
It’s been over fifty years.
Or, like Cakmakli (it was pronounced CHAWK-MAWK-LEE). No “short a” as in LAD.
However, if you are a native Turkish speaker I defer to you.