I was always taught that Vitae (in Curriculum Vitae) was correctly pronounced "Vy-Tee". I have heard other people say "Vee-Ty" so often now that I am beginning to doubt my memory and stick to saying CV.

Re: jewellery/ jewelry. Most common pronounciation I've heard is "JEWL-ry", although I have heard "JEWL-uh-ry" & accepted it as correct. "Jew-ELL-er-ree"? No, never :)

I had a History teacher who used to say "Commonist" instead of "Communist", which drove me crazy - we were studying the Russian Revolution so it came up quite often. And I was 15 (not the most tolerant age).

My biggest frustration is "pacific" instead of "specific". Surprisingly common.

There's a dispersed section of English who substitute 'g' with 'k' on certain words, such as 'somethink, 'nothink' and 'anythink' I met someone called Kevin who did this - nice chap otherwise....

Then, of course there's the way we can totally demolish the pronunciation of some words, especially the names of places and peoples' names:

Chalmondley - is pronounced Chummley
Beauchamp Place is pronounced Beecham Place
Beauvoir is pronounced Beaver (reminds me of a joke - maybe not now, though)

I'm sure there's more....

Of course - what about those '-ough' words:

As the woodsman thought: 'I've had enough of sawing through these boughs' - visitors to our shores just don't stand a chance!

If you're going to bring proper nouns into it how about
Caius College, Cambridge (Keys)
Magdalen College, Oxford (Maudlin)

Not that I'd judge anyone to be ignorant for pronouncing these incorrectly. Unless they lived in either city.

The word: February

The problem: Feb-yoo-airy

*sigh*

i was born in Feb. and I say "Febuary" because, #1) whoever named it that obviously meant FebUary, to rhyme with January, #2) people look at you funny when you do say the extra R, and, most importantly, #3) saying "FebRUary" sounds gay.

:)

That explains some things...Not everything, but some things...

So long as you talk with a lisp you should get away with it, either way

I think I'm being picked on.

How could you possibly think such a thing???

(your turn, BigV)

Oh I thought of another one.

Association.

It's not aso-she-ashion.

And with the salmon thing. Living in salmon central up here, I can say that it is true that the L in salmon is silent, however it is still present. It sounds silly when someone pronounces it sammin. When it's pronounced correctly, you don't say the L, but it does effect the way it comes out.
Hard to explain.... but you all are smart enough to know what I mean, right?

I think Brianna has bravely attempted to "catch a bullet" for me on two recent occasions. In both cases, I was referring to myself, and Brianna has wondered aloud if I was picking on her. I speak only for myself, but clearly: no.

and then we could be entering a dry spell...

drought

is it: drowt or drowth?

My daughter is in first grade, and has a spelling test each week. So far, she has had an easy time of it, because all the words she has studied each week follow rules. Once you learn the rule, you know how to spell them. Well, last week, she had to study the long O words. "OW" "OA" and "O" with an "E" at the end. As she was struggling over the word list, she was looking to me to explain it. I found myself coming up empty, and telling her she just has to memorize the stupid words. She had a hard time of it. I mean really, why are the long O's in "coach" "slow" and "froze" all spelled differently? Why? Just because. That's why. What a stupid system.

Just come up with one rule already! How about "O" followed by a silent "E"?
"coach" could be "coche"
"slow" could be "sloe"
"froze" could stay the same

Much simpler. Maybe more immigrants would learn English.

Languages aren't designed. They evolve. English is a bit of Old English, some French, and some German. And smaller bits of a lot of other languages. English is a rather promiscuous language.

Read The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. It covers all that and is an entertaining read as well. In it you'll find the bit of trivia that the Irish (or was it the Scotch) have a word that means the itch you get in your upper lip just before taking a drink of whiskey.