I think this belongs here, if not feel free to move it.
Are there certain words that you just cannot or will not pronounce correctly even though you know you’re pronouncing them wrong?
Sherbet - It will always be sherbert to me.
Clothes - I just noticed this lately. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and noticed that the readers pronounce the “TH”. I never have. I say “close”. Now that I’m aware of it, I try to say it correctly but more often than not, I don’t.
These are the two that stand out for me. I’m sure I’ll think of more.
“Wrestling”. I always say “rasslin”, as in, “The dogs are rasslin’ all over the living room.” My husband once asked me if I knew the proper way to say it, and I admitted that I do, but it sounds oddly prim to use proper pronunciation to describe such a ridiculous activity.
I’ve always said sherbert and I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard anyone say it without the phantom second r. Not that it’s a word that I hear a lot, but it’s a pronunciation I look out for, as I know that’s how it’s supposed to be pronounced. My peers are mostly from the Great Lakes accent region (Milwaukee to Buffalo) and all say it with two rs.
I also say “close” for “clothes.”
I use both pronunciations for Caribbean. I think I use the one with the accent on the second syllable more.
Same here. “CARE a be un” for the Disneyland ride and movies and “ca RIB e un” for the cruise line. I honestly have no idea which is “correct”, though I grew up saying the former.
Same with me regarding “sherbert” for sherbet. If I pronounced it correctly, I feel like I’'d be saying it with a NYC accent because I dropped the r, like the way they say “mustid” for mustard.
Ditto for clothes = “close”
Often = “awffin”
Aunt = “ant”
Chocolate = “chawklit” ( not in literal phonetics, but close to it )
I always pronounce “Wednesday” as if it were spelled “Wendsday”.
I always pronounce “iron” as if it were spelled “eye-ern”
I always pronounce “nuclear” the way it is spelled.
I honestly do not know how I pronounce “February”. Do I say “Feb-roo-ary” or “Feb-yoo-ary”. You’d have to catch me off-guard to find out. I hope I say it correctly, as “Febrooary”, but I’m really not sure.
Flowers go in a vase – vahz, not vaze.
The red spice is called PAPrika, not papREEKa.
There is no “w” in “chocolate” except when I am singing the Nestle’s jingle from when I was a kid.
For years, even as an undergraduate math major, I had an unreasonable amount of difficulty correctly pronouncing the word “integration”.
Now that I’m a math professor the years of incessant repetition of the term have fixed that, but I’m still kind of surprised it was ever a problem in the first place.
I’m the same as you with often, aunt, chocolate and comfortable.
Also,
Route = if I’m using it like this: What route are you taking to the lake? I’d pronounce it with the “OU”.
Route = if it’s a named road, I’d say “root”.
Another one is:
Roof = I never say “roooof”, I say it so it rhymes with “hoof”.
And I’m not a New Yawker - I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life.
I’ve never been to Denmark, but a 6th grade music teacher in rural Illinois must have expected me to, and warned us never to say “Copen-hah-gen,” citing that as how the Nazis had pronounced it
I may order “phoe” or “expresso,” but I won’t be a Nazi
It is hard for non-Danish speakers to grasp how few consonants Danish speakers need for the approved pronunciation of “København” (= “Copenhagen”).
AFAICT you start out straightforwardly enough with the syllable “Keuh-”, and then think about the consonants “b” and “n” while saying “hah”, and then think about “v” and “n” while closing your mouth. You don’t even have to think about the schwa vowel “e” at all.
As I understand it with my Google-level education, the region is named after the Carib (Car-ib) tribe of people and thus Car-ib-be-an is the proper pronunciation.