By the way, what is the right way to say that?
I probably had some, but I don’t remember them.
I do remember, though, my little sister Elizabeth not being able to pronounce Elizabeth when she was first trying to say it. It would come out “Eeeee-[ramble of nonsense syllables].” We all ended up calling her “E” even when she got older. She’s in her 40s now and Dad might still call her “E.”
Wor-ster-sher or Woo-ste-sher are generally both accepted. The latter is partly mimicking a British accent.
The only word I remember not being able to pronounce was “three.” I’m sure there were more, but that one got me a lecture at preschool. I do remember doing my best to avoid words I couldn’t say after that lecture.
Round these parts it’s “WOO-stuh-shire”. Or if we are being silly “woo-ster-CHES-tish-shire”.
“Grand Prix”. Instead of “Grawn Pree”, it came out “Grand Pricks”. My older brother used to love to get me to say it.
I used to say “tangenital” until college.
I pronounced “specifically” as “pacifically”. Also, “pinch” black for “pitch” black.
I still trip up on the phrase “Power of Attorney” … it comes out as “Power of Eternity” (why yes, hello Dr Freud) which is embarrassing as a long term care nurse.
I remember answering a question in history class about the “Leo-Pard” rhyming with Hard and the Chesapeake, to much derision. We had just started the unit and I had never heard it pronounced out loud. I knew how to say Leopard, as in the spotted feline, but I was equating the word with the name Leopold.
For whatever reason, I couldn’t pronounce Puerto Rico properly. I always said it PEW-er-to Ri-co.
When I was child-like, various grups occasionally advised me that I was pronouncing “color” wrong. I could never figure out, neither then nor ever since, how I was saying it any differently from what I heard anyone else saying. For all I know, I might still be saying it wrong, but people are just too polite to mention anything. How badly can one mess up a simple word like “color”? I vaguely suspect I was saying something sort of like “keller”
I was also chided for saying “blanket” wrong. I kinda think maybe I was saying “blainket” (first syllable rhyming with “try” or “cry”), like Eliza Doolittle saying “The rine in spine falls minely in the pline”.
I was a so-so Superman/Superboy reader back in those days. But I never did figure out how to say Mxyzptlk, let alone Kltpzyxm. (And yes, I know they weren’t entirely consistent about the spelling.) I never heard it pronounced until Mikhail Mxyzptlk appeared in an episode of Smallville.
Okay, now that you mention that, I can think of various words that I pronounced wrong simply because I had never heard them spoken (or never paid attention). Often by putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable. In some cases, well into adulthood.
Nevada: When I first saw this, I pronounced it NEV-a-duh. (Following the same pronunciation pattern as for Canada. Strange, since I lived in Los Angeles, which was certainly closer to Nevada than Canada.)
There were certainly others that I might or might not think of.
Two that I learned to pronounce much later were banal and docent – I had always put the accent on the first syllable. To this day, baNAL and doCENT still just don’t sound right to me.
For some reason I could never remember whether the word was relevant or revelant. Possibly I was thinking it was related to reveal. I was probably in my twenties before I could pronounce and spell it right consistently without looking it up.
I couldn’t say Library (LieBerry)
I couldn’t say Vollyball - (ball EE ball)
I couldn’t say Ed - (M)
So many of them…here’s one:
Bouquet, I knew, was pronounced boo-KAY,
so banquet was obviously pronounced ban-KAY by analogy.
Only…it wasn’t.
My almost 3 year old daughter replaces all her “L’s” with “Y’s” which I will be sad to see corrected as she ages.
So her LEGS are her YEGS and she YOVES her mommy and daddy
Strategy STILL comes out as Stragety if I’m talking fast.
I blame Bugs Bunny.
When I was little, all of my mother’s relatives lived in You Nork.
In college, my roommate finally decided to ask me about a word I used all the time: “seeg” (with a hard “g”). When I explained it, she informed me that while it is spelled “segue”, it is pronounced “segway”.
Although I can pronounce spaghetti correctly now, I still think of it as pisghetti.
A letter column in one issue gave the pronunciation. I don’t recall it for sure, but it was something like mix yez pittle ics. When reading to my little brother, I always called ihm Mr. Mixed-Pickle or Mr. M-X-Y.
When my daughter was in PRE-school, she must have mis-heard its pronunciation, for one day, she announced, I’m going to pretty school. I thought it was so adorable I never corrected her.
She also said gur instead of girl.
Or a New English accent.