There’s a German supermarket chain called Lidl that has steadily increased its UK presence. Pretty much every Brit I’ve heard pronounces it “Liddle”. Before I knew how to pronounce it I went with “Lye-doul”. After they started doing adverts though, the advert narrators were clearly instructed to use the presumably correct “Lee-doul” The adverts didn’t change the pronounciation habits though, Brits still pretty much all still say “Liddle”, and the newer adverts have given up and they also say “Liddle” What other cases are there of people changing their own pronounciation of themselves to fit in with everyone else?
in Holland we say Liddle as well…in fact, I think that’s what the Germans say as well. Strange to go for a different pronunciation in the UK.
Not quite the same thing, but close:
The American aerospace company “Lockheed” was started by the Loughead brothers who were originally from Scotland. They eventually tired of everybody in the USA mispronouncing their and their company’s name as “Luff-head”.
So they changed the spelling to match the correct pronunciation. Which correct pronunciation the public then rapidly adopted. Problem solved.
I remember humorous ads for both Hyundai and Isuzu where they tried to teach Americans how to pronounce the names correctly. They mostly worked.
The German bakery manufacturer, Bimbo, is trying to convince Americans to pronounce their name “beem-bo.”
It ain’t gonna work.
No, that one we’re pretty determined to enjoy for forever if we can.
Sometimes you just have to.
to take it to an extreme example, the fact that we in the English speaking world call it “Germany” and not “Bundesrepublik Deutschland.”
Forte as “strength” would typically be pronounced “Fort” from the French, not “For-TAY” like the Italian. Never mind.
Niche is prefereably pronounced “nitch” but “neesh” gets used more often. So it goes.
OK, that’s surprising. I never really saw how you could get a soft D, and just assumed that those early adverts were saying it right.
German? It’s a Mexican company. I think getting English speakers to pronounce it beem-bo is not going to happen.
I’m still not sure how to correctly pronounce Adidas, Subaru, and Asus.
Dick Cheney’s last name was supposed to rhyme with genie.
I don’t believe that “correct” applies in this case as it’s more a regional thing but you’ll get frowns in this part of the USA if you pronounce JORDAN as anything other than JURD’N.
I’ve been trying to pronounce gouda “ggghau-da” cheese properly and getting nowhere with Americans (especially at deli counters) until I give up and say “gooo-da”.
In Joliet (Jo-lee-et) Il, there is a highway sign on Interstate 80 above the Des Plaines (dez planes) river that indicates Des Moines (deh moin) Iowa is ahead.
Zagat, as in Zagat Guides. I heard Tim Zagat on the radio years ago. He was being fed a question about how his name was supposed to be pronounced and he said it’s actually zeGAT (not ZAget) and jokingly added in “but I sell x million books a year so people can say it however they want”.
How people said his name really seemed to be the least of his concerns. But since he was clearly being fed the question he either wanted it out there or really wanted to make that joke.
The correct pronunciation of a place name is always that of the people who live there.
The same applies to an individual’s names (both given name and surname.)
See La-a pronounced Ladasha. 
Came to post this. Definitely a case where pronouncing it correctly impedes communication.
I don’t even try to say “forte” correctly since everyone feels the need to “correct” the correct pronunciation.
“Scone” drives me mental. In the UK, it can be “skOne” (like cone) or “skawn” (like con). I think there are regional differences. Anyway, I learned “skawn” as I first encountered the lovely little items when in school there. People feel the need to correct that, too. :mad:
In my mind I pronounce it zah-GAHT which seems slightly different from zeGAT, but I’ve never heard anyone say it out loud (or maybe they did and I assumed they meant something else?)