lam bast…ham cast… But I would know what you meant, whichever pronunciation you used, because there may be that much regional difference from place to place or among generations in the US. I get a facial tic more when you shift stress (“con TROV er sy” instead of CON tro ver sy, or “alu MIN i um” instead of a LU mi num.
As an American, I recognize that “aluminium” is more consistent than “aluminum” even though I use the latter. There are 68 elements (including aluminium) whose name ends in -ium, and only 4 that end in -um without an “i”.
I’ll jump ahead, markn+, and suppose you mean: molybdenum, tantalum, platinum, and lanthanum
Back in the day…
Ag-silver, from argentum
Au-gold, from aurum
Fe-iron, from ferrum
Sn-tin, from stannum
Pb-lead, from plumbum
Hg-mercury, from hydrargyrum
And we could almost add
W-tungsten, from wolfram
But languages aren’t 100% consistent or unchanging. I was thinking about the shift in stressed syllable.
Actually the way I heard BE speakers say it is al yoo MIN i um. They also seem to say Jag yoo er instead of Jag wahr.
Ditto, NYC area.
Forgot cuprum for copper (Cu).
If only there were some accurate, widely used system to transcribe speech sounds! You’d then have a way to convey exactly what you mean without being misunderstood.
I found
It’s saying two changes happen to /æ/ in Ontario, both of which describe your examples:
Before -t, the vowel is lowered to [a]. So your Canadian “hat” might sound to an American more like “hot”. /hæt/ > [hat].
Before -m, the vowel is raised to [ɛə] (which can also happen in the US). So your Canadian “ham” might sound to a British speaker more like “hem.” Does that help?
Aussie here, I’ve only ever heard it pronounced Ham Taste, I don’t recall offhand what spellings I’ve seen
Indeed. Northern Englisher here, haven’t heard it used for many a year.
Only heard it pronounce Lambast and spelled Lambaste.
It did strike me as odd that it contradicted the spelling, which conjures images of lamb roasting on a spit and being basted.
There are so many contradictions in English though.
On the other hand, Jaguar pronounced Jag-wahr is just wrong.
Strange, I with my Hispano-German accent would have sworn that it is pronounced like “Throat-Wobbler Mangrove”’. Most curious nobody mentioned that.
American, flyover country, short A in both syllables.
Nor in mine and I didn’t grow up in Canada. But then I speak Philadelphian in which “sad” and “bad” don’t rhyme. Nor the modal “can” and the ordinary verb “can”. FWIW, I say lamb baste (though as one word). There’s no right or wrong in these things. Each dialect will be a little different.
American here. Lived in 7 States. Hamfast pronunciation and I’ve never seen it spelled lambaste. Present simple is rarely seen however. Usually one is lambasting or being lambasted.
American (from Arkansas)
I encountered the word originally spoken, and it was “ham fast.” I didn’t encounter the other pronunciation until much later, and it was always in the context of a prescriptivist saying that people were saying it wrong–hence acknowledging that “ham fast” was more common.
While I do watch a lot of UK media these days, I can’t say I remember particularly encountering that word in them, so it would not color my perceptions.
Thanks all, for ongoing responses. I get the picture more and more: I and late parents, very unusual in Britain in favouring the “ham taste” pronunciation.
There seems to be unanimity among Australian responders, that pronunciation in Australia is solidly “ham taste”. I’ve wondered earlier on about my father’s maritime travels eighty-odd years ago, and his perhaps latching on to a local pronunciation. Am only surmising that he probably visited North America: I do know for sure that WWII’s occasions took him to Australia (he had to have his tonsils out in Perth – nonetheless, he loved Western Australia; reckoned it the most beautiful place he’d ever seen). Maybe he picked up the pronunciation there?
What chiefly put this issue into my head, was in fact a recent book on “problem words and how to use them”, by a British self-appointed pundit on the subject – on the conservative end of the spectrum, and IMO a conceited self-dogmatic twerp: who writes therein, just “lambast – not lambaste”. I took therefrom, that he was referring both to spelling and pronunciation – revealed by this thread (and my one on the other board) that concerning this word, the two are not noticeably in step. I have reluctantly to concede, that this pompous twit would seem to have the rights of the thing where Britain is concerned.
BigT writes: “While I do watch a lot of UK media these days, I can’t say I remember particularly encountering that word in them, so it would not color my perceptions.”
In fact, it would seem to be a word which doesn’t crop up with great frequency, on any scene. I just personally find it – with my preferred pronunciation – a very fine and forceful one.
For me I guess it depends on the specific conjugation, for some reason.
I would lam-baste someone.
but he got lambaasted.
I never heard anyone say the ham bast version, nor have I seen it spelled with no final e. I have lived in Illinois, Georgia, California and Texas. I have friends from Iowa, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Zero ham bast, zero lambast. Weird. It’s amazing all the differences. However, it’s not a word that gets used a lot anywhere I have lived, so maybe I know lots of ham-bast-ers and just never heard from them!
A new and interesting angle on the matter – there seems plenty more to this word, than I’d imagined when I started the thread…
In library school I once used the word in an oral report in class, and the professor in his response used the word back at me. He used the pronunciation different from the one I’d said. That was how I learned it has two pronunciations.
The funny thing is: I don’t remember any more which pronunciation I used and which one the professor used! 
It was quite a few years ago, and the word is almost never pronounced by anyone anyway.
I’m Irish and I only ever heard it rhyming with “taste”. To be fully accurate, I don’t think I have ever heard the word “lambaste” spoken at all - only “lambasted”, rhyming with “tasted”.