That’s an old, old pun on Carmel/caramel
I was unforgivably wooshed. I was in Carmel just last weekend.
No worries. I can be pretty dense myself: I once burglarized a goldsmith’s just to steal the tin ceiling.
(And that concludes the 1890’s joke section of this thread)
How do you pronounce that? 
Either “met-uh-THEE-sis” or “met-AAAA-this-is” (AAAA referring to the short a, as in cat)
And also how about “pro-NOUNCE-ee-ation” vs “pro-NUNCE-ee-ation” - anyone hear that much?
I’m a bit curious about how “foliage” came to be the accepted form, as “foilage” makes more sense (though I do say FOLE-ee-age vs FOIL-age"). Foil is pretty similar to the word “feuille” (French for leaf), the Latin was folium, French also used feuillage, and middle english used foilage / foylage (cite)
Wait… It’s not pronounced ‘jag-you-are’? That’s how they say it in the commercials. Or are they making fun of people who say ‘jag-wahr’? (I don’t know anyone who says ‘jag-wire’, except in reference to a football team where they insist on pronouncing it that way.)
I don’t think it’s pretension, I think it’s ignorance of how the word is spelled - and/or local dialect.
One word that drives me buggy is “orientate” - though that is most likely an incorrect derivation of “orientation”. And the medical word “dilatation” (though I think they are FINALLY getting away from that extra syllable and going with “dilation” more commonly).
No, they were making fun of people who don’t say it the way they do in the commercials, but they were such pedantic dicks about it, I now produce it “incorrectly”. It’s particularly galling since they insisted on pronouncing Prius as pry-us.
Lingerie. I refuse to pronounce it the “correct” American way, with the last syllable rhyming with “way”. I go with the original French pronunciation, rhyming with “we”, and if that makes me pretentious, too bad. In fact since a store clerk “corrected” me, I just avoid the word altogether.
The cat should be two syllables which is how it is in Spanish & Portuguese which was derived from an earlier indigenous word. If some car company wants to pronounce it wrong and throw an extra syllable in there to make themselves feel special, I guess that’s up to them.
Jag-wire is apparently common in the Midwest and is how I remember always saying it (well, as often as an Illinois kid needed to discuss jaguars) in the olden days though I use Jag-wahr now.
Rather famously, not just Midwestern.
According to many newscasters (whose job it is to be accurate), it’s wrongly pronounced “Kuh-BULL”. The other night a local announcer said both Kuh-BULL and “Kuh-TAR”. Makes me grind my teeth.
As for sherbet, I usually just say “sor-BAY” to annoy people.
My wife always say “wreck” for “wreak”. I’ve gently corrected her, and yet she persists. My cross to bear.
Yeah, that’s a weird one. In another former British colony, I’ve also noticed that Canadians say ‘Mazz-da’ instead of ‘Mahz-da’. ISTR that when Hyundais first came to the U.S., Cal Worthington pronounced it ‘High-un-dye’ or ‘High-un-day’. (I never heard his dog, Spot, pronounce it.)
Speaking of vehicle pronunciations, the Toyota Tacoma used to be called the Hilux in the U.S. (my dad had a Toyota Hilux), and it’s still called that in other countries. My wife pronounces it ‘hee-lux’, and I pronounce it ‘high-lux’ (as in ‘High Luxury’). What is the actual pronunciation? How did Toyota intend it to be pronounced?
That would be called a “back formation.” You see it in the dialectal “conversate,” as well.
Orientate seems to be the standard in British English.
I’ve never heard it pronounced the French way in English, much like “Paris” is pronounced with the ess at the end, not Pear-ee, except in set phrases (“gay Paris”) or as an affectation.
Up next: bruschetta.
Broo-sketta.
Brew-shet.
Some Cap-a-cool on the side.
I wish more people did realise it. I am truly sick of people ‘correcting’ me that I should pronounce Basil as ‘bay-sil’ or Gouda as ‘goo-da’. Americans (not the only offenders in this regard, but IMO, the worst), please teach your children that the world exists.
I use them absolutely interchangeably. Same with FYnance and fiNANCE.
But I came to this thread to mention some peculiarities in pronunciation of some words with an a. Let me start with aunt. Technically, we use a tense a. I will spell it aynt although that exaggerates it. But I had an aynt Ann (lax A). The words ran, began, and the modal can all have the lax A. All other words ending in an are tense: ban, can (the noun and ordinary verb), Dan, fan, man, pan, tan, van, all with tense a. (The word wan is different yet.)
The situation with words ending in ad is different. The words bad, mad, and glad have tense vowels and all the others are lax. So sad does not rhyme with either mad or glad. And I have no idea how to pronounce “Mad men” since the pun on Mad Ave. is lost.
My wife says ‘SEE-ment’ and ‘IN-sure-ance’. One of her favourite movies is Marnie (1964). Sean Connery’s character comments that Marnie is from the South, because only people from the South say ‘IN-sure-ance’; everyone else says ‘in-SURE-ance’. (She did grow up in a rural part of SoCal, and lived a lot in the South.)