CALYPSO
My friend, the english teacher, once told me that he’s “feeling awfully mel-ANK-ully today”.
Hmm, interesting! Before college, I had only encountered the word before in crossword puzzles and reading. Everyone I’ve heard say it, including my dad and my geology teacher, pronounce it “epic” so I thought I had just been mentally misprouncing it all these years. That said, I think I like the “epic” pronunciation better - “ee-pock” sounds like something from those genealogy lists in the Bible.
I was a precocious reader (started around age 3), and here are some of the ones that tripped me up while reading aloud:
answer
aisle (yep, I had someone walking up the ayzel)
misled (don’t misle people, it’s not nice!)
sepulchre (reading out loud in Sunday school. Ouch!)
Quiche is not pronounced the same as quickie and crepes are not pronounces as creepies, as my Uncle found out from my Aunt after ordering at a nice restaurant.
My English teacher made fun of me for suggesting that victuals was pronounced vittles.
I was in the mall yesterday, and a teenage girl near me rolled her eyes and said, “Oh! Em! Gee!” Not as a reaction to me…I think.
Most people say buh-NAHL for banal. My old 12-pound dictionary says it’s BAY-null.
I’ve looked up processes, so I know that prah-sess-ees is also an accepted way to say it, but I grind my teeth when I hear it, anyway. Processees are steers, about to become lunchmeat.
The first time I used “gazebo” in conversation I found out it has three syllables, not two.
More place names:
Gloucester, Worcester
Conetoe, NC (kuh-NEE-tah)
but according to that dictionary’s pronunciation guide, that ä in 'nät-sE is pronounced like the o in cot, which is pretty close to the au sound in naught.
Discotheque.
Yeah, I know it doesn’t come up much anymore. It did in my senior English class (three years ago).
“Dis-co-THEEK?” :smack:
Also: Wanton. (ALSO when reading aloud in a literature class…grumble grumble)
“Wahn-Tahn?” :smack:
Womb
Tomb
Bomb
laughter
slaughter
and of course ‘lead’
The leader told the laggard to get the lead out.
Sign. Although, because most people come up against “sign” first, it’s signal that’s more likely to trip 'em up.
I find that the American spellings of some English words with Greek origins makes pronunciation MORE difficult, rather than simpler.
eg,
Fetus (pronounced FEE-tus, not FET-us)) is more difficult than Foetus, provided you know it’s the Greek “oe” (ee) and not the English “oe” (oh).
Leukemia (loo-KEE-me-ah, not loo-KEM-ee-ah) is harder to pronounce correctly than Leukaemia, if you know Greek.
Personally, it seems a little daft to keep some of the Greek spelling (leu) but dispense with other bits (aemia), although I realise that most people don’t receive the “classical” education that would have made the pronunciation of those words intuitive to people 100 years ago.
But mostly, I think it looks ugly and clumsy, and dislike American medical textbooks for that reason.
Sioux. A relative of mine wondered why nobody ever mentioned the “Si-ou-ex” Indians.
In America, this word is only properly used when quoting Daffy Duck: “Slight pause whilst I adjust my accoutrement.”
colonel
sing/sign --> the spelling could cause confusion (I know I always have to check!)
That’s all I gots for now.
I’ll see your colonel and raise you a lieutenant. Although increasingly people in the UK are using the American pronunciation - no doubt due to watching too many Hollywood war movies 
(The traditional English pronunciation is “leftenant”.)
discipline
A rare example of the silent c, and despite the silent e on the end, the i is still short.
I should have waited for a moment’s contemplation before posting, because you should also contrast that with…
disciple
Hiebram
colonel
macabre (not, as it seems, pronounced like macrame)
horizon (not pronounded like horizontal without the ‘tal’)
My favorite commercial right now is that one by Fed-Ex where the guy wants to send a package to P’honics (Phoenix)