Damn. I knew someone was going to bring in IPA.
Elsewhere, @Guest-starring_Id has graciously used the word in a sentence:
Thank you.
I cannot fathom why I’m in such a tiny minority in choosing Option 3, namely that options 1 and 2 sound exactly the same.
Here in the Great White North we sometimes have streets and sidewalks with a covering of melting snow. We call that “slush”. A very simple word, no? Hardly one that would be the subject of controversial pronunciation. And when streets or sidewalks are so covered, we say they are “slushy”. “Slush” is pronounced like “mush”, and “slushy” and “mushy” are pronounced identically. So much for Option 2.
As for Option 1, the word “pushy” derives from “push”. Is there any controversy about how to pronounce “push” (i.e.- exactly the same as “mush” or “slush”)? So shouldn’t “pushy”, “slushy”, and “mushy” all sound the same?
Maybe there’s something about Texan or US southern accents that I’m just not getting, but I have never heard any variants on the pronunciation of words like “slushy” and “mushy”.
In England it depends entirely on geography. North of the river Trent it’s “pushy” south and it’s “slushy”.
I don’t think the simplicity of a word has much to do with it having varying pronunciations.
Is there any controversy about how to pronounce “push” (i.e.- exactly the same as “mush” or “slush”)?
In my dialect (and apprently most, judging by this thread), they are different vowels. I know many of us hate IPA, but this is exactly why we have it – because my “push” and “slush” may not be your “push” and “slush.” For me, “slush” has the /ʌ/ vowel sound, and “push” has the /ʊ/ vowel sound. The difference is between the “u” as in “butt” and “oo” as in “book.” But it’s completely possible that in your dialect those sounds are not distinct. Or “fun/bun/dug” vs “book/look/took.” If you don’t pronounce those two sets of words with a different vowel, then I guess those sounds are merged in your dialect.
I have never heard push and slush rhyming, not in Newfoundland, not in Ontario, and not from any American or Brit or person with English as a second language I have spoken to who has used both of those words in my presence. The vowels aren’t always the same in each of those dialects/accents, but they’re not the same between words in any case. So… Yes, I’d say so.
Mush can go either way, but IMO, it’s like ‘read’, the two different pronunciations have two different, though related, meanings. (Rhyme with slush, it’s a noun, describing a substance of a certain texture, rhyme with push, it’s a verb, describing an action that could result in the noun, or might result in crumbs, or just deformation of what you’re mushing.)
Makes sense. Mushrooms aren’t particularly mushy.
Nor are they a type of room. But now that I think about it, I feel like I have heard “mushroom” pronounced with the vowel /ʊ/ as in your “push,” or at least something similar to it – like in the Northern dialects of British English. For example, “cut” and “put” rhyme in many of those dialects, as there is something called the foot-strut split in English dialects, where those two vowels sounds are either distinct or not.
Ponder the name of this actress, Moon Bloodgood and despair. 
Oh I like option 5. 
That’s why mushy peas are /ˈmʊʃi/ - Yorkshire caviar.
I’m from SW Durham in the UK and my wife is from Yorkshire and we both go for option 3. I can’t even understand what distinction those first two options are trying to make and none of the replies have so far clarified it either.
Well, let’s start with this. Is the vowel in “buck” and “book” the same for you? In other words, are those two words pronounced the same?
indeed it is
And “cut” and “put” rhyme for you as well, I’m guessing. So your accent is not part of the foot-strut split. Most English speakers use different vowels there.
They are the same for me but I’m certainly aware of various accents and dialects treating them and (book/buck) differently.
I think it would be pushing it to say that most english speakers do so, that certainly hasn’t been my experience.
Not sure how any of that relates to options 1 and 2 though.
Well, the Wikipedia article seems to think so. In terms of North American English, I can’t think of any dialect that pronounced “buck” and “book” the same way, but there’s lots of dialects, and I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or that part of Canada has speakers that pronounce those the same. But they’d be a distinct minority. (ETA: So far as I can find online, those two vowels are distinct in all dialects of English except in Northern England and parts of the Midlands and Ireland where they retain the same pronunciation for both.)
Indeed, when I hear /ʊ/ instead of /ʌ/ in words where I expect the latter, I’m already thinking Northernish British accent of some sort. It’s one of the giveaways.
Isn’t that the vowel sound we’re talking about? The “u” in “buck” vs the “oo” in “book” is the “oo” in Option 1 vs the “uh” in option 2. If you don’t distinguish them, that’s why Options 1 & 2 are the same to you.
Also, if you don’t make the difference, it is often hard to hear the difference in other speakers. I have difficulty myself hearing the difference between “merry/marry/Mary” as my dialect is part of the merger that pronounces them all with the same vowel.
like the first guy:
The American one in that one sounds closer to the /ʊ/ pronunciation and the English one sounds like a clear /ʌ/ pronunciation to me. So, the first would rhyme with “pushy” in my dialect, but the second would rhyme with “slushy.” (I suspect @Novelty_Bubble says it closer to the first than the second.)
I took the complaint to mean that it was not a matter of opinion–that there was a right way to pronounce it and any other was wrong. I disagree.