Which in turn reminds me that there must be a special place in Hell reserved for the pretentiously ignorant sportscaster who needlessly coined the atrocity “athleticism”.
…and it’s “deh-TROYT”, not “DEE-troyt” (admittedly a minor quibble, except to those born and raised in Motown)
Oh, I’m at the end already? I’m an editor, and I am very glad most of you have covered many of my pet peeves already. Here we go:
“AHN-vuh-loaf” This is how my step-mother pronounces “envelope.” It’s specific to her, but it grates my last raw nerve. I’ve given up correcting her after about 20 years.
Notice to all Dopers – You generally do NOT need to pronounce the “s” at the end of any of the following:
regard – Unless you are sending many kind regards. Otherwise, "the meeting is in regard to…" or you “make a comment regarding…”
toward - you never need “towards”. Never. Unless there’s more than one.
anyway - I believe this one was covered. There’s never an “s” at the end.
backward, forward - Nope. Only one there. No “s” needed. Ever.
Recently, another editor (who thankfully, has moved on to greener pastures) proclaimed no less than three times in an editorial meeting, that we would all have to be more “villigent” this year. At first, I thought I heard her wrong. Then she said it a couple more times. I looked around and decided that either I’m the only editor there with half a brain, or my colleagues have excellent poker faces. Incidentally, I’ve submitted this one to Scott Adams and actually received an e-mail back from him thanking me. It’s my most prized and treasured e-mail.
Many of my Ohioan family members call those big storms, “HYUR-icanes.” Gah!
Another Ohio thing is to pronounce “roof” as “ruff” and “wash” as “worsh”. There are probably a lot more regionalisms I’m forgetting, but since many of those seemed to have crept into this thread… ::shrugs::
From journalism school, my all-time favorite, most annoying pet peeve is a usage error, not a prnounciation error. “Over 3 billion served.” It should be “More than 3 billion served.” If the opposite of over is under, then the two terms denot physical location. “Less than” and “more than” denote quantity. People misuse the terms and use the one for location when they mean the one for quantity. What is really heartbreaking about this, to me, is the fact that this is the Number 1 Journalism School Rule of AP Style that is pounded into your head throughout college, and I hear this misusage frequently on cable news networks, local news broadcasts, and I also see it in print all the time. :mad:
:: crosses fingers that I didn’t miss a typo::
Dammit.
:smack:
"Pronounciation," typed the former Spelling Bee Champion, as she slunk out of the thread in shame."
slunk?
…and I’m reasonably certain that the former SBC meant to type “pronunciation”.
Slunk a bit further… 
Well actually she is from the north-east of England and speaks with an accent that most people would not even recognise as English.
Yeah that s the same pronunciation.
AHH! Yes! I’m starting to hear this all the time now. I assumed it was a Southern American thing, since I hear it from the “born ‘n’ bred” types here in semi-rural Florida, rather than the out-of-staters. I usually hear it in the context of something that “needs done.”
Few things are as annoying in print as misplaced apostrophes, but “should/would of” is a contender. Another trend I’ve noticed on the “innernet” (don’t get me started on that one) in the last couple of years is dropping the space between two words that often appear together, such as “infront,” “ofcourse,” “incase,” “atleast,” etc. I’m going to pop a blood vessel in my eye the next time I see that.
I once saw a sig line on Slashdot that said, “‘A lot’ is two words. You wouldn’t say ‘alittle,’ would you?” At first I thought that was a great way to make that point, but then I started to see “alittle.” <sigh> It’s a losing battle, I swear.
References to the * figure as an asterix.
The US home of this is probably Pittsburgh PA. Interesting to learn it can be found in the Old World.
I managed to shove “assepted” for “accepted” out of my mind until I talked to my grandfather last night.
I swear my family used to pronounce the C in that word. I have no idea where it went.
The concrete section which divides a main road is called a median strip, not a medium strip.
Missed one
I agree with most of the peeves listed (and am guilty of a few), but I just don’t get the peeve about often being pronounced OFF-ten. Etymologically it is an alteration of oft. Just seems natural to pronounce the T.
If there’s one thing English teaches us, it’s that “natural” ain’t necessarily right.
Too true 
Though I’ll never be able to break myself of pronouncing the T. Sorry all that are peeved by that.
To me it’s the people that don’t pronounce it that makes it sound weird. Just omitting a letter in the middle of the word… it’s like saying liberry.
I grew up in northern NJ, so hearing certain words pronounced without the heavy “aww” sound still sounds off (read: Awf) to my ears. It just sounds so… weak, to hear coffee pronounced cof-e instead of CAW-fee, etc…
All of mine have been covered here except for this one, which probably doesn’t happen anywhere else in the known universe.
A news person at the station where I work refers to a thing called “sosal security.” It’s not a one-time slip-up, either. Every freakin’ time. Sosal. I’ve tried to fathom whether she is trying and failing to pronounce it as “so-see-al” instead of “so-shul”, but no, it’s “sosal.”
I’ll be over here strangling something.
Listen to military personnel. That is the standard pronunciation - for them. I guess because they have to style themselves tough hillbilly Joe Sixpack types.
NEE-ZHEHR instead of NYE-JER
A more enjoyable 10 minutes’ teeth-grinding I’ve never spent, thanks folks. My contribution: the redundant of that seem to be appearing everywhere now.
It’s not that bad of a show
I’m not that good of a speller
and its feral cousin:
It’s in back of the tree over there - what’s wrong with behind?
Which is your preferred? Because NEE-ZHEHR is the way its pronounced in Niger, and also in BBC news broadcasts.
Even though it looks tempting, you shouldn’t think of Niger as Nigeria minus the “ia”.
My wife grew up in the Bronx (NY) and she tells me that most of the people in her neighborhood pronounced foliage as “foil- idge”.