Everyone here gripes about the word NUCLEAR, but I can’t recall ever hearing it pronounced the wrong way.
“Love given when it is inconvenient is the greatest love of all. Kindnesses that are shared at a high cost to oneself are the most dear.”
Don’t know who said it, but I like it.
The love of my life cannot say “wolves”
its always “Wolfs” or “Woovels” I don’t get it either but, it makes me laugh hard!
-Frankie -Lovin those woovels!
pluto:
What?
Well here’s a (relatively recent) thread
on others’ mispronunciations:
“Common yet irksome” http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000733.html
Oh! There’s one that my husband and I purposefully mispronounce: strategy.
We say it “Stragedy”
Like tragedy with an “S”.
We think it’s cool.
Heheheheheheh…
STARK:
Funny you mentioned partisan and artesian, since I know lots of people who think artisan is pronounced “artesian”. So you’re not alone.
The ones I really don’t understand are the reporter’s patented pronunciation of Grenada (grenade uh? Ya mean cause somebody threw grenades there?) I mean, it’s pronounced this way so consistently that it might even be right, for all I know. It just sounds wrong.
How about “mischievous”? Many people I know, including members of my immediate family, pronounce this “mis-CHEE-vee-us”, whereas I insit that the proper pronunciation is “MIS-chev-us”.
Better yet, how about “pronunciation”? I always used to say “pronounciation”, to the great dismay of my English-teacher mother.
Probably the best mispronunciations I’ve heard, however, have sprung from the lips of my sister. She used to pronounce “gyp” as “gipe”, and “fiend” as “fy-end”. He giped me, the rotten fy-end!
Modest? You bet I’m modest! I am the queen of modesty!
At one point in my life, I believed “centrifugal” was pronounced “cen tre FUJE al”. Well, we call the machine a “CEN tre fuje”, don;t we? Pretty embarassing when I used that word in a science class.
pluto - Its’ pronounced “Can the aria” on accounta she doesn’t like classical singers.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
I used to pronounce the “S” on short “I” in debris. The first time I did that in front of my friends, they gave me shit for a month.
There are plenty of other words I’ve misspronounced, but I can’t think of them right now.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
How about Truman Capote? Most people I ask freeze up when I ask them if it should be pronounced “ka-pote” or “ka-po-tee”. So, which is it?
Most people seem to agree, however, that the first name is pronounced “Trumm-man”. 
My home town is spelled Alvarado. We call it al-vuh-RAY-doh, not all-vuh-RAH-doh. San Jacinto is pronounced san jah-CIN-tuh in Texas. Then, of course, there’s san AN-geh-loh, san an-TOH-nee-oh and others too numerous to mention. IMHO, the local pronunciation of place names is the “correct” one. If you’re a Spanish speaker, I’m sure that Texas pronunciation grates on the ears, but if we all sounded the same, wouldn’t it be boring?
My pet peeve? People who say NUKE-u-lur instead of nu-klee-er. But then, I often say “comf’t’ble” instead of comfortable.
Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to relive it. Georges Santayana
Michelle said:
Following the Three-Mile Island incident, President Carter made speeches about NUCULAR
power/energy.
Ironic, when you consider that he was an Officer on a NUCLEAR submarine during his Navy days.
Maybe I should just stick to smart-ass remarks.
I’m the same as Stark, I read a lot of words before I heard them pronounced. I still have a distinct tendecny to pronounce the word arrogant as beginning with an A as in “are” instead of an A as in “apple.” I know I sound stupid, but I can never remember in time to make the conscious effort to say it the right way.
I always say it “can-the-area” instead of “canther-rye-uh”.
“The departure of the church-going element had induced a more humanitarian atmosphere.”
Dorothy L. Sayers
Clouds of Witness
I was in graduate school before I realized that the word I had heard my entire life as “on-ry” or “on-uh-ry” was actually “ornery” and pronounced accordingly. Another of the students in my research group agreed with me that he had never heard the first R pronounced before either.
I read a lot, so there are hundreds if not thousands of words that I’ve seen in print and understand, but have never actually heard anyone say. If I were to try to use one of them in conversation, I might guess right, but the odds are pretty good that I’d mess most of them up horribly.
For some reason I have a hard time saying “specific”, it always comes out as “pacific” (like the ocean).
pluto, please tell me you’re joking so I can marry you because your post just cracked me up.
Oh wait, I’m already married.
What?
Oh, fine, Cant he air yea, pluto makes fun of your name and gets a marriage proposal. I make fun of your name and get ignored. Hmph! See if I ever abuse you again!
Sorry Doc. I’d heard your joke before.
Oh wait, a doctor? What the Hell am I thinking?!?
Doctor Dear, are you in the market for a slightly-used 30-year-old nymphomaniac?
If so, I can give you her phone number. Heheheheheh…
Melatonin:
Most dictionaries I’ve seen list both pronounciations of the word sauna. By your own rules, people should not correct me for using a “proper” pronounciation.
Besides, there’s definitely regional pronounciations of different words. You can call it regional, you can call it a secondary pronounciation, but don’t ever tell me I’m mispronouncing the word. I’m not.