They’d look at you funny because you’d be pronouncing it wrong. Majority rules when it comes to pronunciation. And then sometimes there’s a coalition rule too. If enough people say it that way, it’s a proper pronunciation. I don’t want to get pegged as a Franco-sympathizer, but you can imagine what would happen to the French if they had to start pronouncing things the way they were spelled?
Sure. In my dialect “sherbert” is the correct pronunciation for “sherbet.” What I find interesting, though, is that on both dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster, it’s not even listed as a possible correct pronunciation.
I live in Chicago and yet sometimes I pronounce it saw-sedge instead of sah-sitch like it should be.
Indeed. In Swedish “i” is pronounced like the beginning of “idiot” if there are a couple of consonants after it and like “ee” if there is a single consonant (I believe this is a standard Germanic idea for long/short vowels). This also means that most English speaking people pronounce IKEA incorrectly, it is more accurately “ee-key-ah” than “aye-key-ah”. I’ve met several Swedes that have told me that the first time they heard it pronounced with an “aye” was when they saw it on “Friends” in the mid nineties.
However, of course, Mr Torvalds is Finlandssvensk, so he mispronounces just about everything 
That’s why you come to the Dope, to get it Straight! 
RE: Epitome.
I read that word more often* than I say it. I know how it’s pronounced, yet I used the word in conversation a few years ago, and pronounced it “epi-tome.” It wasn’t until the blank stares and laughter that I realized what I said. Stoopid word.
“Off-ten” or “offin”? 
America - Amerikay. dunno whether it’s from singing too many ballads although I’ve heard others say it.
Cat fud (rhymes with “Fudd”) - came from that old Far Side cartoon.
Terlet paper - That’s the way Archie Bunker always pronounced it, and for some reason I thought it was funny so I still do it.
Yes, I hear “pro-vo-loan” all the time. The one that really gets me, though, is “mar-scar-pone”. That drives me crazy.
(I pronounce them both pretty much correctly, though an Italian might not be too happy with the accent.)
I usually say nuclear like GWB. Can’t help it.
I also can’t remember how to say eidetic.
HAHA - I do that for all my pets “fud.” I even write it that way on the shopping list!
To me, that’s six of one, half-dozen of the other.
I just looked it up in the dictionary, it is spelled wrong there as well.
I went through a phase where I would see “Academy” and pronounce it “acka-deemy”. After saying it out loud, I would quickly correct myself and wonder, for the next 10 minutes, why I pronounced it like that.
Yep, so do I. (I also write “terlet paper” on the list.)
While the “incorrect” pronunciation is not standard Italian, it’s more a matter of dialect than correct v. incorrect. See this NYT story.
Do you mean the latter is the “correct” one for the Chicago dialect, or the general American dialect (so far as there is one.) The first pronunciation you listed is closer to the “accepted” pronunciation than the latter. See here for an audio example. Most of the US does not have the cot-caught merger, so they would pronounce it with an “aw” instead of an “ah.” Or, in IPA, a /ɔ/ instead of an /ɒ/.
Or maybe you’re saying “sossitch” is the more accepted pronunciation for the Chicago dialect. That’s what I say when I’m trying to exaggerate the Chicago accent. Although there are different accents within Chicagoland. I come from a part of Chicago that says “shih-CAH-go.” Some insist that Chicagoans says “shih-CAW-go.” They say both. I’m not sure if the division is geographical or what exactly.
I was going to say that mine is “potable,” but in looking it up, I see that the correct pronunciation is apparently POH-tuh-buhl, which seems logical to me. Most people I hear use the word say POT-uh-buhl, however.
At an Italian restaurant this lunchtime, the waitress said that the soup of the day was minestroan. That’s a new one on me.
“Wa-CHO-via” instead of Wa-KO-via." Not too big of a deal since they’re not around any more.
There is a Rio road in Charlottesville VA and everyone pronounces it as RYE-o, myself included. There aren’t many Rios on this side of the Rockies.
I’m half Italian. My grandparents were straight off the boat. I consider the “correct” pronunciation to be the middle of the road American way. My Italian family pronunced it the “incorrect” way as per the NYT article. To me and my Italian relatives the cheese is mozzarell. I hear most non-Italians say motzerella which is like nails on the blackboard to me. Same with pro-shoot (prosciutto), pasta fazool (pasta e fagioli), provaloan (provalone), managout (manicotti), scungeel (scungilli), galamad (calamari), rigawt (ricotta).
As John said, its not wrong, its dialect.