It’s not so much a mispronounciation, but I’ve always thought of Why A Duck as the bastard offspring of Duck Duck Goose and Y. A. Tittle.
Shhh! No-one is supposed to know. And who you calling bastard?
So when is iampunha going to get on here and tell us how to pronouce his name? Otherwise I’m going to keep saying “I am Pahuna! The big big KAHUNA!” every time I see his name.
Bah. I think even if he told you, you’d still say that. Old habits die hard.
Scotti, I’m quite pleased with myself, because that’s how I’ve been pronouncing your name all this time. 
[hijack]I’ve been lurking here for a long time, but as Admin for another (very busy) board, I’ve hesitated in posting because I knew I’d be sucked in. Long story short, I’m sick of politics, so that gig is up, and here I am looking forward to making some new friends.[/hijack] [/blatant sucking-up]
Every time I see Yo La Tengo, I hear Yo Lo Tenga (never quite got that gender thing down), and CrankyAsAnOldMan forever looked like CrankyAssOldMan to me, too. hajario looks like ha-HA-rio to me, which invariably starts Phil Collins’ Sussudio running through my head. (Feel free to sing along. :))
I always pronounced my screename eirroc as eerock, but my son ( who’s name is corrie, eirroc backwards, where I got it from) recently told me "hey my name backwards is “I rock”, now I’m paranoid that people think I am full of myself.
I always read it as “I Rock”, and it never made me think you were full of yourself. I have always thought it was clever.
Why do you think I sign my posts as “Pete,” besides the fact that it’s my name?
My screen name follows the standard Unix convention: first initial followed by up to seven letters of the operator’s last name: whence “psiekier.”
I’d never really thought about how to pronounce it, since I usually end up spelling my last name for everybody anyway - either that, or just getting them to call me “Pete.”
A coworker of mine from long ago figured it was meant to be pronounced like the Psi-corps of TV’s Babylon 5, but since I didn’t watch that show, that really couldn’t be it.
One night, I sent an Instant Message to a friend of mine from high school; it turns out it’s not him, but his niece using the Internet that night.
He was surprised when his niece reported that some person named “Pee-Seeker” wanted to chat with him. :eek:
Even if that’s an awful pronunciation, the story is funny enough to be worth retelling, hence “Pee-Seeker” is now the official pronunciation of “psiekier.”
Sorry for showing up so late, guys; I was at work yesterday from 11 AM until I got home at 1:30 (car broke down) and I’ve been sleeping since.
Hokay. Firstly, those of you pronouncing the “nh” as “y” from Portugese are in some good company. Kyla tells me she did that back when she was in her Portugese “ethnicities” or “ethnographies” or whatever class it was that she took.
Good company, in this case, is wrong company. Now, here it might help to know the derivation of the name, which I’ll give you AGAIN:)
When I was very young I had a Paddington Bear. Now, being very young has this effect on one’s ability to pronounce words such as Paddington and supercilious and vitamegavitamin and … stuff like that. So instead of saying Paddington I said punha. And I said it like this: p’n-ha. The U is a grace note of sorts, for those of you who know what those are. The U is almost not pronounced for those of you who don’t know what one (grace-note, not U) is. The first syllable is stressed ever so much less than the second. Think of a slightly southern pronunciation of “down-wind” and you’ll mostly have the accentedness down.
Zoom forward to fall of 1999. I got me a new email account and “punha@netscape.net” was taken, so I went with “iampunha”, or “I am punha”. As in “I am paddington bear”.
Notes: The U is not long. Despite what Weirddave (who’s got the most obvious screen name since Cecil Adams) may tell you, the U is not long. But it doesn’t really matter, any of it, because you can call me by my real name! It’s like someone said at Chidope when … er … someone else (screw memory. Faking it is so much more fun!) asked me how I pronounce my username. After I went through the explanation there AGAIN, the first someone said “Or you can just call him Patrick. Much easier”. I want to say that person was Geobabe but I don’t recall seeing her Friday night.
Okay. Now for Gaudere’s SN … (this is gonna get me booted from the l33t cl!qu3 for sure…).
There is a verb in Latin which in English means “to rejoice/be grateful/celebrate/such things”.
Gaudere is that verb! And here’s how to pronounce it:
Gow (as in “cow” but with a hard G) dare (as in, duh) eh. Last two syllables are slurred together to produce gow-Daray. Second syllable (the Dare part of it) is accented. Third syllable is accented more than first.
Well, it finally happened. I typed in a reply in the quick reply box, then hit “post reply” instead of “Submit Reply”–all gone.
OK. Again. I have long read “eirroc” from right to left, as “corrie.” I don’t remember what I first thought, but I must’ve been tipped off, or caught on, pretty quick. After reading her (?) post, I actually looked at her alias forwards, & now it looks, not like “corrie,” but like it should be pronounced “ey-rrok” (possibly with a trilled “rr”). Annoying.
Oh, wait, it’s going back to normal. OK.
Now, I have always assumed that Corrie was eirroc’s name, & that it was feminine, like Dutch Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom. That it’s her (Scots) son’s name surprised me.
And “Scotticher” is obviously pronounced “Skott-itch-er” w/ primary accent on the first syllable & secondary stress on the last. 
chique, is one that I’m not sure about.
Is it chick?
Sheekay?
rsandy?
I’ve asked her before, and she said it didn’t matter how you say it.
Chique that is, not it.
If anyone’s wondering, Leif is pronounced Lafe, long “a” sound. I have to tell this at the doctor’s every time. Like neighbor, sleigh, reign, weight. I have no idea why teachers tell children that “Leaf” Erikson was the son of Erik the Red. Sigh.
It’s “Sheek”, darling. Like “sleek” (as in slinky and classy, not like “sneak” but similar to “speak.”) And don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.
Well, now you have me itching, dear. Please see my previous post on the matter before you give me a rash.
It took me a disturbingly long time to realize that rundogrun was run dog run rather than rundo grun.
Actually, I can’t believe I’m even admitting to it.
Whoa. I never figured that out before! I always said Rundo Grun too, and thought of the running of the grunion.
rundogrun ISN’T Rundo Grun?
OOPS!
Wait, you mean you thought it was Rundo Grun?
I thought it was Rund Ogrun.
Bah.
Shit, Pun, it’s only your name, what do you know? 