I have always said KAH-TAAR, I know "gutter" is not correct, but I've been told KahTaar is incorrect as well since it's actually "kah-turrr" the "rrr" signifying the rolling r sound. Is this correct?

My colleages who work there say something like cut' - ter. Almost sounds like gutter but not quite.
Slate has dedicated an entire article on its pronunciation.
How about that?

There was an advertisement for Qatar Airways on British tv played incessantly a while back and they pronounced it CATT-ARH - emphasis on first syllable and sounded like cat, the animal.

Whether that is actually the correct pronunciation.........don´t know!

I've also heard it as "Cat - ahh" with the emphasis on the first syllable. Occassionally it's more gutteral - a cross between cat & cut.

It is not pronounced Cutter, as the news anchors like to say. Remember the t is soft like a "th" sound. Cuth er.

JJ

That Arabic professor, Terri DeYoung, didn't sound it with a soft "t" - I assume she'd know, else why's she teaching Arabic?

The hard part is the first syllable: "c" merged "g." The article said the Arabic "q" is alien to English speakers and the "t" using the back of the tongue rather than the tip is also alien.

I did a bit of research on this as I know a few contacts who lived in Qatar. I confirmed that hte local Arabic pronounciation is as JKJ mentioned... "Cuth-er" with a distinct rolling r sound "Cuth-errr".

But for English cut-ar is supposedly acceptable and common.

Gutter or Cutter as pronounced by Americans is definitely incorrect because it doesn't have the r sound as in ca-tar so a local may not recognize the pronounciation.