I said “bone-uh feeduh” once. My mom corrected me.
I was listening to a guy on a bus talk about his summer job in “Mawntawnuh”. It took great restraint to keep from turning around and screaming, “It’s Mon-ta-na, idiot!”
One word I don’t like: advertisement… ad-VER-tiss-ment or ad-ver-TIZE-ment. Thet boggled me for ages 
Two other of my favourites are miscellaneous (I also don’t like writing it ;)) and syzygy (don’t ask). But those aren’t really words to use on a daily basis.
EN-vel-opes?
or
ON-vel-opes?
Beats me. I had to ask for help in a shop today to find a box of the above item. I think I switched between pronunciations mid-speech.
Hmm. Shows what I know. I thought it was pronounced “BONE-uh FEED-ay” Whenever I hear “BO-na FIED” I’m sure that’s wrong.
I just remembered a few more - I occasionally work with gemstones, and I can never decide how to pronouce “hematite” or “peridot”. HEE-ma-tite? HEM-a-tite? PAIR-ah-doh? PAIR-a-dot? The fact is I have heard both words pronounced both ways, and I haven’t heard them pronounced often enough to reach a consensus.
auxilliary - Every time I hear it, it seems like the last i gets left out, hence: “augsILLary.” I myself pronounce the i, thus: “AugsILLyaree”. Though it does make the word seem a lot longer. Is there a right and wrong, to this?
As in the herb.
(Ah, there’s another one: Herb or 'erb?).
Anyway, is it BAY-zil or BAA-zil?
(BAA having the same “a” sound as in “cat” or “match”, not “ah” as in “hot”.)
I think the pronunciation of “basil” varies from accent to accent.
I myself say “BAY-sil” when I’m talking about the herb, but I say “BAA-sil” when talking about some guy with the name Basil.
BAYzul - American pronunciation
BAZZul - British pronunciation
'erb - American
HERB - British
Oh, let’s continue, shall we…
o-REG-a-no - American
o-reh-GAH-no - British
suh-LAHN-tro - American
KOR-i-an-der - British
SCONES - American
SCONS (or something thereabout) - UK
I prefer “ENvelope.” “ONvelope” sounds affected and unnatural to a Chicagoan. Maybe it’s an east coast pronunciation.
The two pronunciations of “advertisement” are commonly used in the US. I grew up with “ad-ver-TISE-ment,” but now tend to use the other. Same with the two pronunciations of “harassment.”
auxilliary tends to be pronounced “auxillary” in American dialects
Brits tend to say “auxillyary.” But I think there’s a lot of grey area for this word.
Yeah, most of these words DO have two pronounciations: British or American. So much of the world hears American television (though it’s often translated) and music, yet they also learn British English in schools (except in Anglophone countries). I think that’s where our problem arrises!
Am I the only person that wonders about mature?
Is it (ma-chur) or (ma-tour)?
I say “mat-chyouuuur” in a sort of elongated two-and-a-half syllable way. We Brits love our added-value Y noises.
-James
I never- ever- say French words, even borrow words.
Well, they got quesadilla half right (keh-sah-dee-yah), which is better than most. The one’s that’s like chewing tinfoil to my ears is goo-awk-uh-molee, guacamole, which is properly pronounced walk-ah-mole-eh. And no matter how you pronounce it, say tortilla, not flat bread or wrap. Yes, I live near Mexico, how can you tell?
According to dictionary.com, the first word can be pronounced BONE-uh or BONN-uh (actually, I can’t tell what difference you are trying to point out between BONE-uh and BO-na). Anyway, the final syllable is the same vowel sound as in the last syllable of circus.
The second word can be pronounced FIED or FIE-DEE, but not FEED-ay.
Argh! You lot are terrible 
Thanks to the whole ‘basil’ and ‘herb’ pronunciation topic going on above I’m now sitting here with Eddie Izzard quotes running around in my head!
Talking about the difference between American and British pronunciation;
“you say 'erb and we say Herb, because there’s a f***ing ‘h’ in it!”
on a similar note (paraphrased somewhat),
“but you write it ‘thru’, and I’m with you on that one cos ‘through’ is just cheating at Scrabble!”
Sorry for the hijack all! No more " 'erb " please or I may be forced to find a flag!
Ya know, now that I re-read my post, I’m not sure what I was doing either.
Speaking of wines, how do you pronunce Shiraz, I’ve heard like three ways.
Route–direction on travel- rowt or root depending on the person
Rout–beat at sports- always rowt
Once I was at the nursery (plant store) inquiring about a certain type of evergreen I was looking for by its Latin name, and I pronounced it “PEE-nis”, but my Dad later told me that in horticulture they’d pronounce it “PYE-nis.”
And I was asking this of a guy.
grey_ideas, it doesn’t work that way with English. You can’t just say “There’s an ‘h’ so we must pronounce it.” It should be noted that many languages weren’t sure about what to do with “h.” In Latin there were times when it wasn’t pronounced (though it was regular), and in French it’s considered a vowel if the word is of Latin origin “l’hopitale,” and a consonant if it’s from somewhere else like Germany “la haine.”