[Reily]

I’ve always pronounced it Ka- Naw- Ah!

I believe it’s an Algonquin word.

[Morgana]

http://rickleephoto.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-pronounce-kanawha.html

How to pronounce “Kanawha”
A few minutes ago, Sitemeter tells me that somebody came to my site by Googling the keywords pronounce, kanawha. I don’t actually have that information here... perhaps we should remedy that.
Below is a photo of the Kanawha River which runs through Kanawha County in West Virginia.

You pronounce it kuh-NAH-wuh... roughly. Run it together real fast until it sounds like kuh-NAW. If you have another way of spelling the pronunciation, leave it in the comments. If you are not from around here, you’d probably try to say CAN-uh-WHA but that’s not correct. I’ve seen it spelled all kinds of ways on old maps... Canawa, etc. Naturally it’s an
Indian word, the meaning of which is uncertain.

[Roccus]

I’m just a “dam fur’ner” but around here it’s pronounced the same way Hoppy pronounces it..... “kuh-NAW”