I’ve gotten used to the oddities of British pronunciation while listening to BBC World News stores; leftenant, millertree, Al Kayeeda, and so on. Not too long ago, though, I heard an announcer pronounce the word “Wednesday” – the middle day of the week – as “wed-NISS-day”. I thought I was imagining it, but she said it more than once.
C’mon … do people actually pronounce Wednesday this way?
Until a native speaks up. . .
The OED says that the “uncontracted” pronunciation is “not uncommon in the northern and north midland counties. The uncontracted version is attested from the 15th century.”
The pronunciation I associate with the B.B.C. is
wEd@nzdI - more like “WED-@nz-di”
This one always struck me as odd, because it seem to be transposing “nes” into “ens.”
Neither I nor anyone I know says anything other than “Wensday”. I’ve heard the “uncontracted” pronunciation on TV/radio, but have always assumed this was a modern affectation due to the influence of the spelling. I’m surprised to hear the OED disagrees.
I listen to the BBC quite a bit and have never personally heard the affected three-syllable pronunciation of that day of the week (not to say it doesn’t happen). I rather enjoy when they refer to the metal “Al you MIN you mum” or the Central American country “Nick ah RAG you ah,” though.
Yeah, well yo’ momma to you too. 
“al you MINI um”, isn’t it?
I’m pretty sure Frank Muir and Dennis Norden always said WED-enz-dee.
On “Top Gear” the other day, Clarkson mentioned that the frame of a certain car was “made from aluminum, whatever that is”. Loved that he could poke fun at aluminium.
Al - you - MIN - yuhm, generally. Elendil’s Heir inserted an extra “m”. We don’t pronounce it that weirdly. (In any case, it’s spelt differently here, and we pronounce it as we spell it, Americans pronounce it as they spell it; seems fair enough to me!)
As for “Wednesday”, I do kind of pronounce the “d”, but only as a semi-swallowed glottal stop: “We(d)'ns-day”. It’s only two syllables, but the first has a sort of flap of the tongue against the palate to give lip service (as it were) to the d.
According to my dictionary, the proper British pronounciation is “WENZ-dee”, with an unstressed “dee” for the “day” part of all days of the week (MUN-dee, TYOOZ-dee etc), but I think that is becoming less common these days. I don’t use it. And most people I know say something like “Chooseday” rather than “Tuesday”…
Only ever pronounce is “wenzdee”. Native of a ``northern county".
Aw, don’t be so hard on the 3-syllable Wednesdayers. The day is named for the poor, old, nearly-forgotten unemployed god Wodin. Maybe it brightens ol’ Wode’s eye a little to hear somebody say it that way. :rolleyes: :dubious:
Not to mention “Jag-you-are”.
My favorite, too. Especially when combined with the capitol city: muh-NA-gyu-uh, sometimes muh-NA-gyu-ar.
But to be far, they spell it differently. There is an extra “i” in the British version, right?
As with days of the week, there’s only two syllables (yes, that includes Saturday, but that might just be me 
). “Jag-wah” is perhaps the best representation. Otherwise, how could you pronounce ‘Jag’?
Re. Aluminum/Aluminium: I can’t be bothered to find the links, I’ve done it too often before, but there’s an interesting history of how different words came to be used in different countries.
Odin. Hardly the least-known of the Norse gods, I’d say.
FTR, I pronounce the D most to the time. Wed ‘n’ sday - the N as in Fish ‘n’ chips
Not everyone over there does it, but how do people get from “house” to “hice”? Is it just an affectation by the toffs?
The BBC is not quite as staid as it used to be. You will hear a fair amount of regional accents these days, although I believe there is a reference book for unusual names of places and people.
One of my favourites from years ago was listening to newsreaders butchering the name of the **Reverend Ndabaninge Sithole **
Yes, that’s definitely an upper-class stereotypical thing. Made fun of to great effect in Wallace and Gromit’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit;
Lady Tottington: [over the phone] It’s a disaster. I have the most terrible rabbit problem. The competition’s only days away. You simply have to do something.
Wallace: Certainly, Ma’am.
Wallace: [Aside, to Gromit] I think we’re about to go up in the world, lad.
Wallace: [Back on phone] Just stay right where you are, Your Ladyship, and we’ll be with you in an…
[hits the control panel and gets dragged up through the ceiling]
Wallace: Ahhhh!!!
Lady Tottington: In an hour? But I can’t wait an hour. I have a major infestation. Hello? Hello?