Egregious.
It always comes out as “eg-reg-rious”.
I don’t know why…
My hairdresser - aka “stylist” - is from Quebec, Canada. She was QUITE appalled when I said kwa-BECK. She told me I was saying it incorrectly and it is K-beck. So when I talk to her I say K-beck but to everyone else I say say kwa-BECK. Sorry, but K-bec for “everyday” is out of the question…I use it only on special occasions.
I say sherbert but my mother is from Rhode Island and says sherbet…I always thought it was because of her r-deletion. Lot I know…
In Massachusetts, town pronunciation is a joy for visitors: Worcester (WOOS-ter), Peabody (pea-BUDY), Gloucester (GLAUS-ter), Haverhill (HAVE(rhymes with Dave)-rill), etc.
I know that this is OT but where I live a submarine (hoagie) sandwich is called a “grinder”…try explaining THAT to a person at a deli in Southern California…
Your hairdresser should stay away from Windsor ON. The area is replete with French names.
Across the river is Detroit, pronounced (as everyone knows) dee-TROYT instead of day-TRWA.
A major street in Windsor is named Ouellette, which is locally pronounced oh-LET instead of wuh-LET. There are other examples, but perhaps the worst is Pierre St. Is there anyone who doesn’t know the proper pronounciation is pee-AIR? The answer is yes: Windsorites who pronounce it PEE-ree.
I live in the neighbouring town of LaSalle. We locals pronounce it luh-SAL - the proper way. Go Sabres! (which we, of course, mispronounce SAY-ber instead of SAH-bruh).
I used to butcher cummerbund until I looked it up- it’s the fat belt thingy that goes with a tuxedo. It is properly pronounced as it’s spelled.
I know how to spell and pronounce it properly, but for some reason, I got stuck on pronouncing “narrate” or “narrator” as nararate, or nararator. Sometimes I consciously catch myself and sort of blend in the extraneous syllable, creating a sort of hybrid between the correct and incorrect pronunciation. But I have a hard time kicking the habit altogether - for some reason, my incorrect pronunciation just seems more right, to me.
You forgot Dee- TROY - it.
Around here there’s TRAW-na (Toronto) or Glaw-SESS -ter (Gloucester, pronounced GLAW-ster).
“Honey, my head hurts. Can you get me the aceta-acitia-asitaminifina-the goddamn Tylenol?”
As a child, I read a Peanuts cartoon where Linus used the word “gauche.” For years, just to amuse my mother, I would malaprop it as “GOW-chee.”
Every time I see a sign or business with the spelling “Shoppe” in its name, I pronounce it with two syllables, to rhyme with “choppy,” out of sheer perversity with the intent of mocking the pretentiousness of pseudo-Ye Olde Englysshe misspellings. That goes for anything else that adds a gratuitous final -e.
Aren’t they usually meant ti be more whimsical than pretentious?
I don’t know what their motivation is. There are a lot of Americans using British spellings imagining it makes them look more high-class, which deserves mockery.
I always say “par-tay” just because I think it sounds fun.
I always say “deee-vorce” (with a Southern drawl) - it’s from an ex-boyfriend who brought home a loud friend one night - I heard him say “Shh! You’re gonna get me a dee-vorce!”
I pronounce Uranus as “your anus,” because if that pronunciation was good enough in 1970 then it is good enough now, eight-year-olds be damned.
I also pronounce “Raymond Luxury Yacht” as "/θrəʊt/ /ˈwɔː®bla®/ /ˈmæŋˌɡrəʊv/ "
Do it. I told a tram inspector that ‘Jay nay parleee paz frank-aze’ and got out of a ticket. On the way home from my intensive French lessons.