<p>I feel your pain, but you need to relax and let Americans be Americans. The point is that sauna is now also a word in American English as well as Finnish. And the Americans pronounce it differently. This happens all the time with words borrowed from other languages. People who know the proper pronunciation of words in Spanish, German, French, Japanese, etc. have similar reasons to cringe when they hear Americans butcher words derived from those languages. But life it too short to try to go around trying to correct everyone. It’s a useless enterprise that is doomed to failure.</p>
<p>Plus, just because a word originated somewhere does not mean it is pronounced as it was in the native language. Otherwise, we would be talking about Munchen and Vien.</p>
<p>We adopt words like crazy. I’m pretty sure NO ONE seriously calls Detroit anything other than Dee-troyt or Dih-troyt. The French pronunciation is LONG gone.</p>
<p>And almost no one pronounces “rodeo” or “pronto” correctly in English. You get over it. I do get made fun of when I slip into Spanish with my pronunciation of some of those words though lol :)</p>
<p>Where we really go “wrong” is in the pronunciation of Latin words that are now part of English. In proper Latin pronunciation Julius Caesar would be pronounced “Yulius Kaiser” and Cicero would be pronounced “Keekero.”</p>
<p>And Japanese isn’t much better. Proper Japanese pronunciation of ninja is with a long e sound: “neenja.” But you won’t catch those American English-speaking teenage mutant turtles saying it that way.</p>
<p>^Ghostfire13, the pronunciation of the “h” in words like “wheat” (and “why,” and “what,” etc) is not an affectation. It’s a regional thing, and there’s a history of how the “h” has been dropped: </p>
<p>I never realized that I pronounced the “h” (I think it comes from living in Texas when I was younger) in those kinds of words and that other people, in this area, didn’t…until my son, who picked it up from me, received comments from his theatre peers about it.</p>
<p>Oddly, people who pronounce the “h” don’t tend to notice its absence, but it seems like people who don’t pronounce it sometimes notice its presence.</p>
<p>My husband (Massachusetts parents but raised in Charlotte NC) tells me I say “hanger” incorrectly (I’m from central North Carolina). I have no idea what he’s talking about. He must be wrong, bless his heart.</p>
<p>BTW, my sister and I have both been told numerous times that we sound Scottish - even by other Southerners.</p>
<p>Thanks NJTheatreMOM: My husband was so sure it was an affectation that I didn’t bother to argue. Living in California most of my life I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in person. I just love that commercial! Also love the Hopper ads. Whenever I have a conflict on my DVR I loudly (even when alone) wish I had the “Hoppah”.</p>