I see these words in print—bon mot and blanc mange—and I realize there’s no way they’re pronounced the way they look. Plus, it’s something I picture Alex Trebec pronouncing when he’s being prissy and showing off. I know French tend to leave off the final consonant sounds, so would they be BO MO and BLUH MAH?
You can tell the natives from the tourists in Natchitoches (in Louisiana) which is pronounced *Nackatish{/i}.
In a first-year phonetics paper I came up against “Zephyr” which I’d never heard spoken aloud. I took the “y” to be an “ih” sound, as in “Zeh-fear”. I was wrong, as apparently it’s “Zeh-fuh”.
My family has always wilfully mispronounced as much as they could thanks to the perverse, contrary nature of my (fluent in 8 languages) mother - Choux pastry will always be “chooks” to me, as much as we’ll enjoy a nice “pait” (pate) with crackers. As for “Wooster” sauce, it becomes “Wooster-cester-shishter-shyster-shooster-shire” sauce. Mind you, she’s Welsh, and any country with place names such as “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch” is just taking the p*ss.
Ironically… milieu.
Guess it depends on whether or not you’re a choosy mother. 
In Marietta, Georgia, natives call their town “Mayretter” and in Pulaski County, Illinois, natives say “pull-ASK-eye.”
Seems like we ALL have trouble with words derived from the French in particular, non?
That’s what I meant - I don’t find it odd to pronounce the t in turbot, because you pronounce the t also in robot.
Not sure what you mean by “what is Turandot”. It’s an opera, if that’s what you are asking. For pronunciation, go to http://www.azopera.com/sounds/78.wav. You will notice that the final t is pronounced.
That thing where you’re pointing or waggling your arms & hands: jest-churr or guest-cherr? Similarly, jest-tick-you-late or guest-ick-you-late?
Horse doovers 
I was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Iowa. As a result my pronunciation is unaccented and perfect. Everyone else is wrong. You hear me? WRONG!
Which reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend from Nebraska. When I asked him why, if Nebraska was north of us, he had a southern accent, he replied:
“Ah don’ hev en ak-sint. Y’all heer fecked.”
I used to fumble with this one:
Vlad Tepes (Zep-ish)
I have Leonard Nemoy to thank for my correction on that one.
tyvm spock-daddy.
canape.
Is it cana-pee or cahna-pay? I was serving some once. “That is a canopy!” an indignant guest admonished, pointing out the window to a tent on the lawn. “This is a cahnapay!”
I smiled and went to the next guest. But I have no idea which pronunciation is right–I’ve heard them both.
Now, I’ve always heard that or-DERVES is the correct pronunciation, but I tend to avoid the issue, and the canape one, by just calling them appetizers.
www.dictionary.com gives pronunciation. It says that canape is kn-p, -p. So now you know! (it’s cahna-pay).
Oh - on preview I see that this message board cannot display the pronunciation characters that dictionary.com uses, so go to http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=canape
They also offer: can·a·pé
The word I just can’t get - and I’m serious, I’ve never heard it said… is cunnilingus. How the hell do you say that?
BTW, JuanitaTech wanted to know where the stress is on “objet d’art.” In all french words (that I can think of) the stress lies on the last syllable. So it’s “ob-JAY dAR”
Yup I’ll have to agree…“ob-jay d’AR”
I’ve always heard cunnilingus “ku-ni-LIN-gus”
I’m not even going to begin to say how the french words are pronounced unless they have a voice post here! 
The sounds are just impossible to transpose in english if you don’t know how the french pronounce them.
I think it’s ka-na-PAY (but as I’ve never eaten one or ordered one, that’s mere speculation) and or-DERVE
Until I was thoroughly corrected (with lots of laughter) by a friend of mine sometime in elementary school, I always said “ya-chit” for yacht
or maybe it’s KU-ni-lin-gus yeah maybe that’s more it
Well, French is really easy once you’ve learned how they pronounce letters, and which letters they don’t pronounce at the ends of words. Hors d’oeuvre in English isn’t pronounced the same way it is in French, though - probably because the French “oe” is a sound we don’t have. So in English we say “or derve”… but in French it’s closer to “ohr DUUVRE.”
I’m noticing that I need to read more! I always hear these words a million times, so that by the time I read them, I can tell what they are from context.
I went and looked, and they give both! Long a sound or long e sound. Unless I’m misreading the symbols. So I guess that means either is correct?
It’s actually kind of frustrating to know that there are two allowable pronunciations of a word you’re unsure of. Because then you have to decide on one.
As far this goes, well, if I am in a restaurant , I just ask for the Lea & Perrins, it usually works. I hate saying that word. I don’t like to sound like the southern hick that I probably would be if yall heard me talk.
(slight hijack)
OH yes!! I live not far from Grrr.
Round here folks do their grocery shopping at Bi-Lo’s (it’s Bi-Lo, with no possesive ‘s’) and they walk their “dawgs”. It drives me nuts.
And if I hear one more person say “down here in South Kak-a-lacky” I think I might scream. Or throw something. Or both.
(/slight hijack)
Back on topic…I find the word “pamphlet” quite perplexing. Is it Pamp-LET or Pamp-FLET?