I say “Reesiz peesiz” so it does rhyme. I think the reesees peesees phenomena is one of those “say the joke pronunciation so much you start to use it all the time” things.
Holy shit! I agree with BigT.
That’s also the way they pronounce it on the commercial. Now about those reesees monkeys…
Commercial:
Until this thread, it never occurred to me that anyone would pronounce them any other way.
Seriously? Dude, they’re advertised on TV, how could you not know how it’s pronounced. :dubious:
For me, they both have a schwa sound, so neither “e” nor “u.” For me, if there is a difference, it’s in the final consonant sound. It’s /riːsəz/ vs /riːsəs/ for me, with the former being “Reese’s” and the latter “Rhesus.” In other words, both are pronounced the same to me, except “Reese’s” ends with a “z” sound and “Rhesus” with an “s” sound.
Yeah, close enough for my ear. I don’t pronounce the final syllable of either “Reese’s” or “pieces” so that it sounds like the word “sees,” except in a deliberately joking manner.
I had never heard the OP’s pronuncination until 7 or 8 years ago, but now I hear it from time to time. I grew up pronouncing both words with the schwa sound as the second syllable, as others have suggested.
Connected with this is the variation in what people call a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I grew up saying the full phrase (and I didn’t like them, so when I got some in my Halloween candy, it was “oh no, not more Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.”) But again, starting 7 or 8 years ago, I noticed that some people call them REE-see Cups. They omit the “peanut butter,” and they omit the possessive “s” from the end of Reese, and they pronounce Reese with a long E at the end. I find it very interesting that the people who do one of the above, do all three. For example, no one calls them “Reesiz Cups” or “Ree-see Peanut Butter Cups.” It’s either Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, enunciated correctly, or “REE-see Cups.”
M&Ms or come out fighting.
That kind of sucks. Now I’m questioning my Reese’s pieces purchase, as my goal was to only get the good stuff.
I’ve never found myself in a situation where I’ve had to say it.
To be fair, M & M definitely rhyme.
No, it’s unlikely you pronounce them “like they’re spelled.” As with most unstressed vowels, they’re both usually pronounced more or less as a schwa.
(The “-iz” rendition does the job, too.)
I agree that the monkey’s end is softer than the candy shell.
Is this really what you say the schwa?
Yup, that’s how the schwa is depicted.
In normal speech, the “u” in “rhesus,” the “i” in “thesis,” and the second "e in “pieces” are pronounced the same. It’s only when you make a conscious effort do you differentiate, by altering the pronunciation to reflect the spellings.
To be picky about it, I don’t really have the schwa sound in any of those three words in “rhesus” I pronounce the full vowel , in “thesis” I pronounce a reduced vowel, but one based on rather than the schwa, and for “Reese’s” no vowel at all —
['ri ss] ['θi ss] ['ri sz]
Really? Okay, if you say so… But keep in mind it’s hard for any of us to analyze our own speech, because to pay attention to it is (often) to alter it. That’s why, for example, linguists treasure rare early-20th-C recordings in which the speaker was unaware of being recorded.
Wait. Some piece actually pronounce the name Reese as “ree-see”?
What a coincidence! It’s “rhesus feces” for me. 
Crap. I have to redo that, because I keep forgetting that Tapatalk doesn’t allow IPA.
rhesus — ['ri sʌs] (note the full vowel in the unstressed syllable)
thesis — ['θi sɪ̈s] (note the centralized [ɪ])
Reese’s— ['ri sz̩] (note the syllabic [z])
exactly!
I dunt like the reese’s pieces anyway