What’s the proper way to pronounce the word “homage”? I’ve seen more and more people recently pronounce it in a French fashion (i.e., “oh-mahj” with a soft J), whereas I’ve always been told it’s got a hard English sound (“ah-midg” or “hah-midg”). All the dictionary sites online with audio pronounciations seem to support the latter, but other people have said “well it comes from French, so it should be pronounced that way.”
What say you?
ah is right
What has really irritated me about the Frenchified version is that the usage seems to be part of the artsy-fartsy set’s way of covering up bad film-making. DVD commentaries abound with the word, the pronunciation and the excuse by having this lame scene be an homage to Hitchcock and that one an homage to Charlie Chaplin and yet another an homage to Ed Wood. Snooty affectations all.
My dictionary has both your second pronunciations without so much as a mention of the prissy one. Fine by me!
Probably comes from people thinking that since “fromage” and “homage” look similar, they must rhyme. Borne of ignorance, I imagine.
I don’t think it’s “ignorant” to use the original pronounciation of a word.
If anything, I would say it’s the other way around. In Scandinavia people are more familiar with the French language, and we pronounce the word in the french way.
It depends . . . do you say “ask” or “aks”?
Why, would you think I’m “ignorant” if I said “aks”?
Do you say Wendsday or Wednesday?
calavry or cavalry? 
I’d never heard it pronounced “ah-midge,” such that I’m surprised to even see that pronounciation in the dictionaries pointed out by the OP. Color me educated.
I thought it was “oh-majh.”
I’ll get around to re-learning IPA one of these days I promise.
Febuary, or February?
Depends upon regional dialect. I say it this way: hah-midg.
NW USA.
Febuary. And for some reason there is a local tendancy to put an R in Washington. Warshington?
tomato or tomato?
eh
Are we a little bored tonight, Kids?
Q
calavry? Shouldn’t that be calvary? Or do I not know my mispronunciations?
jigawatt or gigawatt?
I’ve only ever heard the oh-mahj pronunciation in all my 50+ years. And yes, if you say aks (or axe) instead of ask, I will think you a bit ignorant until you prove otherwise.
Well, in gestures of respect as in yogic meditation, there’s a great deal of Om-age.
…Illustrating that dialect leads to prejudicial thinking. A number of studies show that people judge others’ intelligence by the dialects and speech patterns they use. Southerners are often judged to be stupid, based on their drawl alone. And some people are considered to be ignorant, merely by their pronunciation of the word, ask.