Apparently meme is supposed to be pronounced ‘meem’ and not like the memo but with an e instead of an o ‘me-MEH’
This one for me, too. Also, as a kid, I thought ‘democracy’ was Demo-crazy and Persephone was Persa-phone, and I’m another one who thought ‘superfluous’ was super-flew-us. Also, I thought ‘collegiate’ was college-ate.
I think it is something that happens when you read stuff that you don’t really discuss with anyone around you. It can be years before you realize you are ignorant about a word’s pronunciation. I remember when I first learned of the concept of descriptivism, I was mighty accepting and sympathetic to the cause. I thought to myself, surely there are words that have become accepted into the language eventually simply because enough people pitied a person managing to communicate a thought clearly using words they may have only read before.
Dais, marquis, and anonymity. Anonymity is the worst because you have to compose yourself and get the rhythm right or you’ll say it incorrectly whether you want to or not.
“Meem” is the correct pronunciation for meme is you’re talking about a virus-like idea. But Meme is also a common French Canadian nickname for a grandmother and it’s pronounced “me-MEH” when you’re using it for that.
So if you mispronounce the word and anyone makes fun of you, just tell them with a tear in your eye that you were thinking of your dear old grandmother back in Montreal
You mean it’s not pronounced that way!!! Well…crap! 
I pronounced ‘awry’ as AW-ree in my head for so long that when someone finally said the word, I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. :smack:
In my case, I’ve been reading military history since I was a teenager (a really dorky teenager obviously). But it was three decades before I learned that Agincourt, the site of a major battle, was pronounced azhin-core not agin-cort.
Also, I’ve heard ‘cache’ pronounced as cash, kaysh, and cachet. Never figured any of them to be wrong though; english is such a melting pot of languages and accents that I’m surprised we understand any of it.
Even though I understand it is becoming an accepted pronunciation (Thank you so very much Dubyah!), “nuclear” pronounced “nucular” drives me batshit! :smack:
Also somebody substituting “calvary” for “cavalry.” GAAAAAHHH !!! And as long as we’re on the subject, isn’t “Golgotha” pronounced GOL-ga-tha not gol-GOTH-a?
Oh yeah…is it HI-ro-shee-ma or hi-ROSH-i-ma for the city of Hiroshima?
Waves hand in the air. I only learned how it was spoken when I started listening to recorded books.
Japanese doesn’t recognize stress the way we do. The variations are slight, and vary depending on the speaker. These variations do not change the word.
Here’s a page of Japanese speakers saying the word. Note that all but the last say something that sounds more like hee RO shee MA. But the last one is also not innacurate: HEE-ro-shi-MA.
The only true constant is the accented and clipped last syllable.
I’ve always pronounced dour to rhyme with ‘power’, and cache as ‘kaysh’.
Primarily, there have been two:
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Nostradamus = NOSTRA - damus
I always pronounced it nah - STRAH - damus. -
Yosemite = YOH - SIM - uh -tee
I always thought it was YOSE - might.When I found out how they pronounce it out west, then the Bugs Bunny cartoons made a lot more sense.
Gyro - For a long time I pronounced it like gyroscope. Then I thought it was ‘gear-o’. Recently I found out it is actually pronounced ‘year-o’ (at least according to my local Greek descended Greek cafe owners).
Hors d’oeuvres - through my teens I pronounced it ‘whores D vores’.
“Avoirdupois” I mentioned this a while back. I, to this day, have never heard the word in spoken language, only written. So I pronounced it somewhat as it would be in French, like “a-VWAR-doo-PWAH.” A recent dictionary expedition renders the pronunciation more as a non-French world would be pronounced in English “a-vur-duh-POIZ.”
AFAIK it is not “cash-ae”. It is just “cash”. Like cash.
Rhymes-with-sour is an acceptable pronunciation of “dour”.
Again, AFAIK, the correct pronunciation is, in fact, “sooperfloous”. What did the really arrogant bastard tell you it should be?
I pronounce it ‘camerflage’ when I’m not paying attention.
And I’m apparently unable to pronounce ‘Keynesian’ correctly no matter what I do.
I’ve pronounced “environment” as “envirement” for most of my life until one day it ended up being spelled incorrectly as “envirement” (before the days of spellcheck) on a report I submitted to my employer. I was supremely embarrassed after it was pointed out to me.
I think I was 30 before I learned how to pronounce “aspartame”. I was reading it to myself as “ahs part uh me”.