<p>Jewelry</p>
<p>is Jewel-ree.</p>
<p>not Jew-ler-eee</p>
<p>Re: “Calliope” posted by PRJ in post #22.</p>
<p>There’s a street in New Orleans by that name. There it is pronounced Cal-ee-ope.</p>
<p>Wow–MANY pet peeves here! I apparently inherited these from my mom, who was a stickler for correct pronunciation of French words widely used in English, such as lingerie–of course, the correct French pronunciation is “lanj (with a short a) er ee”–which she insisted on saying. It used to drive me crazy but I know respect that she was a purist.</p>
<p>Here in the South-- “atha lete” is another good one, also, incorrect use of the singular “criterion” and the plural “criteria”.</p>
<p>It’s only a matter of time before Gates is referred to as the Secretary of DEE-fense</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I just looked it up in the dictionary because I had always pronounced it Cal-ee-ope, and it says both pronunciations are OK. Although the other way is listed first (Cal-EE-oh-pee).</p>
<p>Another word I mispronounced for years because I’d read it but never heard it is “awry”.
I’m sure those of you who know how it’s pronounced can imagine how I used to say it!</p>
<p>awe ree???</p>
<p>I pronounced it awe ree too, till I heard my British friend pronounce it as awe reye. (as in I or eye)
Sounds so weird to me even though I was brought up in British/Australian schooling and still spell color as colour etc.</p>
<p>Some examples from The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide For The Careful Speaker by Charles Harrington Elster offers suggestions on how to pronounce thousands of words and expression.</p>
<p>[Do</a> You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Beastly | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/beastly/]Do”>Do You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Beastly | PBS)</p>
<p>[The</a> big book of beastly … - Google Book Search](<a href=“The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide ... - Charles Harrington Elster - Google Books”>The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide ... - Charles Harrington Elster - Google Books)</p>
<p>A friend/co-worker says “supposebly” instead of “supposedly”.</p>
<p>lol an employee also says supposebly. Also refers to her dog, a “Doverman”. I had a friend who referred to his car, a “Voltswagen” (he was serious).</p>
<p>Oh, dang!</p>
<p>I am only on the “B’s” and I found a word that I mispronounce</p>
<p>"Balsamic bawl-SAM-ik. Don’t say bawl-SAHM-ik.</p>
<p>Despite what you may hear from some slippery-tongued chefs on those gourmet cooking TV shows, the stressed second syllable of balsamic rhymes with ham, not calm."</p>
<p>Excuse me while I go back to the list…</p>
<p>OMG…before I even read further…I HATE V - HICK _ al!..it drives me insane…there are so many of these but that one is #1. I do live in New Jersey…grew up in Texas with irish parents…so I went thru a tough time trying to learn how to say “root” instead of “route”…"Ooornge, instead of orange…oh geez…there were tons of words…lol. I think we (bro & I) eventually learned how to have a neurtral accent…keep in mind, both parents had very thick Irish brogues…lived in England, then Texas for 9 yrs…then nu joisey…lol…eventually you either don’t care or you notice all the idocincracies of an persons vocabulary…(doesn’t mean ur ignoring spell check or not)</p>
<p>I say pernament- and aminal- amongst others- I find pronouncing things difficult- obviously and have a hard time keeping consonants in their proper places.
English I think is one of the more difficult languages- I find it very interesting that there are Italian dyslexics have fewer problems with the written word.</p>
<p>I heard someone say “relaty” for realty tonight and I couldn’t wait to get home to post this 
And I can’t help but thinking that a store clerk in Italy is posting on their forum that "this American woman came in one time and asked for “pros-cue-ee-toe” for proscuitto “pro-shoe-toe”.</p>
<p>People make fun of me pronouncing Tuesday as Tchewsday rather than Tooosdy. Whatever, it’s what I grew up with and I’m too set in my ways to change.</p>
<p>I say Tchewsday too. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to say it? I think Mundy, Toosdy, Winsdy, Thursdy, Frady, Satidy, and Sundy sound funny.</p>
<p>and yes, I used to say Aww-ree. So embarrassing. </p>
<p>And I still say Feb-ew-ary. Does anyone actually say Feb-ru-ary? Oh, just noticed that’s how it’s spelled, whaddayaknow!</p>
<p>I recently found out that fracas is pronounced phonetically in this country.</p>