mispronunciations of the written word

[Green_Fairy]

so i understand the people have accents and may genuinely not know how to pronounce something...but it still makes makes me giggle. these are some that i've had at work

mocha
= moo-coo
= moo-cha

macchiato (i get that this is kinda tricky. still funny, tho)
= mach-iato
= macciootle

latte
= luh-tay
= lattlle

anyone else have stuff that's difficult to pronounce?

[joe hx]

i used to pronounce fatigue "fat - i - gay"

[Green_Fairy]

my grandmother used to pronounce aluminum al-u-minium.
i used to say pair-a-didgm for paradigm

[raw456]

my grandmother used to pronounce aluminum al-u-minium......

Aluminium is actually the English pronouciation of the word. American English dropped the second "i" for some reason (I dont know why)

I used to have trouble with Facsimile. I used to say "Face - Smiley"

[Nurian]

For the longest time, I used to pronounce "falcon" the same way Bille Dee did in Star Wars: "ful-cun"

No idea why. I only recently broke that habit.

[joe hx]

disoriented as "dis-orian-tated"

used to say "warsh" as in "warshington" (my grandfather still says it like that)

[TimmyHate]

my grandmother used to pronounce aluminum al-u-minium.
i used to say pair-a-didgm for paradigm

So your grandma pronounced it correctly? *Ducks*

[Green_Fairy]

So your grandma pronounced it correctly? *Ducks*

*throws a latte* damn you non-americans!

[seigus]

It's sometimes can be embarrassing to say a word you've never heard pronounced. You've read it, you know what it means, but you've never actually HEARD it.
Heard a guy on the radio pronounce "scenario" as "seen-a-REE-o".

[Sparky]

I'm embarrassed to admit that it has come to my attention that plethora is not pronounced pleTHORa. Darn.

[Broomjockey]

macchiato (i get that this is kinda tricky. still funny, tho)
= mach-iato
= macciootle

Er, I think you're going to need to break this one down more. How is it pronounced? Because I've only ever heard "Mahk-e-ah-toe," which would be another way of spelling your first "wrong" pronunciation.

[TheSHAD0W]

Here in the Borderland (El Paso, TX for me) we will often deliberately mispronounce Spanish words, speaking them as if we were reading English words. Think about how you would say "jalapenos", for instance...

[BeeMused]

For some fun with pronunciation I recommend this poem:
The Chaos
Read it aloud and try not to sprain your tongue.

I think this pronunciation stuff is a conspiracy to torture foreigners like me! But the German language strikes back... 3 genders of nouns, 4 cases and more!

[Chanlin]

If you want to get into a linguistics standpoint as long as meaning is understood between both parties there is no such thing as the correct way to pronounce a word. A mispronunciation occurs when one of the two parties has no idea what the other said even though they are speaking the same language. Then of course there are dialects and accents

And if it helps anyone it happens to the best of us, my Professor for The History of the English language (aka should know better) mis-pronounced phoneme (normally fo-neem) as phone me in class once. She realized her slip up right away, but it was funny.

[NightAngel]

my grandmother used to pronounce aluminum al-u-minium.

When I was younger I simply could NOT say aluminum. I pronounced it alumo-nominum. I knew it was wrong and it drove me nuts but my tounge would not cooperate.

I was so excited the first time I managed to say it right- I think I was in my early-mid 20's. Now, the only time I say it the other way is on a rare occasion in jest of my former plight.