http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chomel-saint-tropez.jpg
[[caption-width:321:It actually IS pronounced "Tro-pay".]]

Someone tries to class up something by "pronouncing it posh".

This was common in the middle ages among upper class families who had common surnames -- the Featherstone-Haughs for example were named for a poor farming village, so in order to make themselves sound posher, they changed the pronunciation of the name to "Fanshaw".

Usually using French pronunciation. [[strike:Count De Money]] Comte de Monét in ''History of the World Part 1'' is a straight comic version. This happens in France also; the Alsatian Gamekeeper in ''The Rules of the Game'' is named Schumacher but everyone pronounces it as if it were French (Shu-mar-shay) since they're in France.

British names are infamous for fancy pronunciations -- Paul Merton on ''HaveIGotNewsForYou'' lamented the fact that he'd clearly been off school the day that some of the more outlandish ones were taught. A lot of American names have been "flattened" to sound like they look. [=McKay=] for example is generally "Mah-Kay" (or even "Mackie"), in Scotland the pronunciation is closer to Muh-Kye.

A similar thing has happened to place names. Des Moines, Illinois, and Dubois (WY) still have their French silent "s", but the vowels have been Americanized. Also Cairo (Care-oh), Lima (Lie-ma), Athens (Ay-thins), Minot (My-not), Eldorado (El-der-ay-do), Calais (callus) and countless others.

This trope is related to the linguistic phenomenon known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection#Hyperforeignism Hyperforeignism]].

Many examples will overlap with MyNaymeIs, where the name is spelled differently for about the same reason.

Many examples will be subjective as they relate to dialects and accents.
----
[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Advertising]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMe3WDmxBEI One A&W rootbeer commercial]] features a particularly clueless job candidate referring to his interviewer as Mr. "Dumbass". Eventually, the interviewer states that his name (clearly visible on a nameplate as "Mr. Dumass") is actually pronounced "Doo-Moss".
* In one commercial for Glade scented candles, a woman tries to pass off her new candles as fancy foreign candles. She removes the label and attempts to throw it away, but struggles with the adhesive and it ends up sticking to her skirt in the vicinity of her rear end. After she responds to questioning about whether it was a Glade candle with, "No, it's, uh, French. [[ShapedLikeItself From France.]]", one of her friends pulls the label off of her and sarcastically asks, "Haven't you ever heard of glah-DAY?"
* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfU_5jgupo this ad for the Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan]] that's primarily a TakeThat lobbed at the direction of Lexus and several German automakers (BMW, for one), it ends with "Win one little award, and everyone gets your name right. It's pronounced "Hon-day", like Sunday."
** For real? This troper was once lectured by a Korean co-worker, who told him it was pronounced "HYUN-die" (the second syllable pronounced like, what happens when someone kills you). Was she jerking my chain?
*** Yes, yes she was. Korean is a language written and divided into syllables. The company as-written in Korean (I don't know how to import foreign lettering, if at all) is written as the two-syllable Hyun-dae, in order to get the sound your coworker tried to convince you it was, due to the structure of the Korean language, would be a 3-syllable hyun-da-i. There is no "I", as we would pronounce just the letter, sound in the Korean Language, their "i" equivallent is pronounced like "ee". The big point of the commercial wasn't the "Dae" pronunciation, it's that most Americans pronounce it similar to Hai-un-day, when the "y" is there, but there is no emphasis on it in correct pronunciation. Think of it along the lines of names like Kyon.
****The "long I" (ai) sound, while it may not exist has far as the Korean written language is concerned; certainly exists. I've had to write it constantly. This business of "dividing into syllables" quite simply breaks down a lot (because Hangul is intended for one or, at most two syllables per vowel, and that doesn't work at all with loan words) and every Korean understands this.
*****Interestingly, the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqd3LulVvnA official TV ads]] from Hyundai in Germany pronounce it exactly like the above troper's colleague suggested.
**TheOtherWiki and a foreign text-to-speech program both agree on the pronunciation of the original word hyeondae (현대 in Hangul) being something like HYUN-de.
** Another example that ThisTroper was highly amused to find that the British do not fall into with their commercials, but Americans constantly call by the wrong name is another Korean car company, Daewoo. The "w" is silent. There is actually no "w" sound in the Korean language, although it can be approximated by combination-vowels. So the company should be pronounced "DAE-oo".
*** Emphasised by the British slogan "That'll be the Daewoo" (day-you).
****Just to set it right. There are Koreans that say Hyun-dai, there are Koreans that will pronounce a "w" (getting them to say B, P, V, or F is the hard one). There is an entire set of letters in Korean relating to "w plus a vowel". Some of them pronounce the "w", some don't, but you shouldn't call "Ms Hwang" anything like "Ms Hang". Even basic vowel sounds change if you move 50 miles; and the fact that Seoul is kind of like a mecca for Koreans, and will exhibit dialects from all over the place doesn't help. Don't listen to any one person about Korean. Even Koreans admit it changes wherever you go; Jeju-do being the most incomprehensible dialect to other Koreans.
** Similar example with Pantene shampoo -- it's a French name, pronounced Pan-ten, but in American adverts is always "Panteen".
* [=McDonald's=] is running a commercial for their [=McCafé=] coffee drink which has random words getting an “é” pronounced “a” stuck on the end, with whispering voices humming “a, a, a, a” in the background. The commercials are so annoying, it's difficult to decide whether or not they're a StealthParody.
** In this troper's opinion, that ad campaign could not possibly have been [[IncrediblyLamePun morgué]].
* An ad several years ago for the everything-shop Argos featured Graham Norton making "helpful" suggestions to a woman about how to decorate her flat. As soon as she leaves, she calls up the store and they soon deliver furniture, wall hangings and so on. When Norton returns, he's impressed and inquires as to who she hired to decorate the place. She casually says "Argos", but then realizes and decides to impress, saying that of course she was referring to a Lithuanian designer called "Argús".
* For years, commercials for Nestlé products in the UK pronounced the company's name as it reads: "NESS-ull". This changed when the company decided to unify pronunciation across all countries, and it's been "Ness-LAY" ever since, apart from the USA where Nesquik chocolate drink mix is still made by "NESS-lee".
** And, of course, nobody in Australia has any idea about how ''we'' are meant to pronounce it.
* Lampshaded in a kiwibank advert where the town of Whakatane (Pronounced "Far-Car-Tar-Neigh", I shit you not) Is attempted to be said by an Australian banker as "whack-a-tain"
* This troper thought PC hardware manufacturer ASUS was pronounced AY-sus but it's actually ah-SOOSS.
* Subverted by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqYvCc-0i1w this]] commercial for Labatt Blue Light.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* Writer Christopher Priest added a recurring character named Dr. Vilain during his run on ''{{Steel}}''. The doctor wasn't really evil, just ruthless, and would constantly remind people. "It's French, it's pronounced 'will-hane'". Of course, it's not pronounced like that in French.
* In ''{{Hellboy}}'', Trevor Bruttenholm's last name is pronounced Broom.
* In the Marvel Mangaverse, Benjamin Grimm's first name is pronounced "Ben-ya-MEEN".
** In fairness, if I'm not mistaken Ben Grimm is supposed to be Jewish, so a Hebrew name would not be out of place. Normally the first vowel would be short i rather than short e, but otherwise, that ''is'' the way it's pronounced in Hebrew.
***In many dialects of English, /I/ (as in bit) and /E/ (as in eternal) are not distinguished before nasals- m, n, and ng. Therefore, it's hard for many English-speakers to tell whether it's Ingish or English, or Binjamin or Benjamin.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* "It's ''Frahnkenshteen''!" (''YoungFrankenstein''). Upon hearing this, Igor insisted on "EYE-gore". The joke here was either about choosing a less Jewish-sounding version of the name, or the doctor's desire to distance himself from the family reputation.
** Pretty much the latter, as that's how he feels about his grandfather for the first half or so of the film. Eventually, after he escapes his [[strike:fate]] destiny, he insists that "My name... is... FRANK-EN-STEIN!"
*** Also, to this troper at least, Frohnkensteen sounds more American-Jewish, whereas Frank-en-stein sounds german.
*** It's doubly funny because Frederick's pronounciations is actually partly the way it's supposed to be pronounced (curse you Columbia Pictures...), which is kind of a mix between the two (something like "Frahn-ken-shtine")
*** And nobody's mentioned "Froderick" yet?
* W.C. Fields once played a character named "Souse" and had to keep correcting people with "It's pronounced Sous-Ay! Accent grave over the e!". The pun doesn't really work nowadays, but back then souse was a slang term for a drunkard.
** It was actually a double joke: when written, the "e" has an accent aigue, not an accent grave. So the character was wrong about his own name.
* John Bigboote in ''TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossTheEighthDimension'': "It's 'Big-boo-tay!' Tay! Tay! Tay!"
** I thought it was "Bigboot".
* One of the prisoners in TheMovie of ''TheShawshankRedemption'' is looking at ''TheCountOfMonteCristo'' by "Alexander Dumbass". Since AlexandreDumas was French, the correction was [[JustifiedTrope justified]].
** This pronunciation is probably as old as Pere Dumas (it's just too easy). There are cites back at the turn of the 20th century (Discovery Mission Antarctica), and it's rather doubtful that user made it up.
* Another MelBrooks example: ''HighAnxiety'' has a character named Lillolman, whom the main character misspronounces as "Little Old Man."
* Yet ''another'' Mel Brooks example: Count [=DeMonet=] (not Count The Money) in ''HistoryOfTheWorldPartOne''.
* Apparently, Mel Brooks ''really'' liked having fun with this one. Reversed in ''TheProducers'': "Jacques Lepideux... Jacques Lepideux... Jack Lapidus?"
** No mention of [[BlazingSaddles Hedley Lamarr]]?
* Heather Horney in ''WaynesWorld 2''. It's pronounced "hor-NAY," but Garth calls her "Miss Horny" even after hearing it pronounced correctly.
** Famous psychologist Karen Horney's name is pronounced "hor-NYE" (rhymes with "thigh").
* Subverted in the movie version of ''The Music Man''.
* In ''The Comedy of Terrors'', the central characters had several exchanges along these lines:
-->'''Gillie:''' Mr. Tremble...\\
'''Trumbull:''' ''Trumbull!''\\
'''Gillie:''' But that's what I said.
* Played with in the Steve Martin film "The Man With Two Brains". The main character's name is Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (pronounced just like it's spelled) and his eventual love interest (voiced by Sissy Spacek) is named Anne Uumellmahaye
* In ''Corky Romano'', the titular character's FBI alias changes his surname to "Pissant" after a bumbling hacker misinterprets an insult as the answer to his question of what the name should be. It then becomes a running gag as Corky tries to convince people that it's pronounced "Pis-AHNT....it's y'know...French."
* ''Joe Dirt''
-->'''Joe Dirt''': Comin' to work. Joe Deertay. \\
'''KXLA Security Guard''': Don't try and church it up son. Don't you mean Joe Dirt?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in in TerryPratchett's ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Hogfather'': The charming and psychopathic assassin Mr. Teatime keeps telling people that his name is pronounced "Te-ah-ti-meh". Fortunately, he only considers it ''slightly'' annoying.
** One of the greatest moments of the story is right after [[spoiler:Teatime dies, Death (who he just tried, and failed, to kill) then says, "[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Stop playing dead, Mister Te-ah-ti-meh ]]
" and Mr. Teatime's ghost says in amazement "You got it right!", at which point Death says, "[[/folder]]

[[folder: Of course. ]]
", basically rubbing in the fact that Death is beyond human and Teatime should know better than to try to kill him]].
** Another ''{{Discworld}}'' one: "It's not 'Earwig', it's Ah-''wijj''." As the character is a self-important, etiquette-obsessed social climber, this may be a nod to ''KeepingUpAppearances''.
** One more ''{{Discworld}}'' example, this one from the ''Tiffany Aching'' subseries: Roland de Chumsfanleigh, pronounced "Chuffley". Usually footnoted with "It wasn't his fault".
*** A parody of the real English names Cholmondely (pronounced "Chumley") and, as mentioned above, Featherstonehaugh (pronounced "Fanshaw").
** Then there's Edward d'Eath. This is a RealLife surname, though.
*** And originally almost always spelled "Death". The surname derives from men who played the character of Death in the medieval mystery plays each English town put on -- the roles were lifelong and hereditary. The "d'Eath" or "d'Ath" construction is meant to make the name sound Norman French (and therefore snooty). Other surnames deriving from these plays include Virgin, King, Queen, Prince, Monk, Daft, Angel, and Saint, although a few of those may derive from service to a royal -- rarely, because most kings wouldn't have allowed that.
*** LordPeterWimsey hs two middle names: Death and Bredon. The first is supposed to be pronounced 'deeth'. This actually matters in one of the novels.
* Twain's ''A History of a Campaign that Failed'' had a man named Peterson who upgraded his name (Peter is from a word meaning "stone"-> Stone is "lap" in French-> "Of the Stone"= D'un Lap ->) so he called himself "Dunlap".
** Is it supposed to be old French? Because "lap" is absolutely not a word in modern French, and "stone" is "pierre".
*** Probably Old French (of which Norman French was a dialect). 'Pierre' as a noun and a name both derive from Latin 'peter' = "stone" (thus the pun in the New Testament: "And upon this rock..."), and 'lap' as in 'lapidary'.
**** More of part pun, part new name being given based on the name's meaning, I believe.
* Perhaps inspiring the Count de Money mentioned above, the novel ''The Red and the Black'' has a character named the Comte de Thaler (thaler as in [[MeaningfulName the German word that became "dollar"]]) who is a LawyerFriendlyCameo of one of the Rothschilds and whose German name would be pronounced "Thalay" in France.
* Christopher Chant from the ''[[DianaWynneJones Chrestomanci Chronicles]]'' is a very lavish, high-class English gentleman, obviously having this trope as a ''very'' noticeable characteristic. It's so noticeable, in fact, that the author [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] it in the book ''Conrad's Fate'' where most of the characters found it more annoying than charming, to the point where one character yelled at Christopher to not call out his name with "posh voices like that," to which Christopher (not understanding at all how infuriating he sounds) unamusingly retorted that was just how he normally speaks.
* Inverted in the case of ''HarryPotter'''s Voldemort, whose name is meant to be pronounced as though it were French but was bastardized by fandom and the films.
** Wow, now the name actually makes some amount of sense when pronounced right. It could mean either "flight of death" or "stealing/theft of death" in French.
*** "From" can also be substituted for "of", giving alternate interpretations of fleeing or stealing ''from'' death.
** The actor who portrays Voldemort in the movies, Ralph Fiennes, is also subject to this. His name is pronounced "Rayf Fine".
** We made it this far without mentioning Hermione? In the fourth book, Rowling actually had to explicitly ''spell out'' the pronunciation of her name.
*** [[{{SharPhoe}} This troper]] felt bad after reading that, since he spent the last three books calling her "Her-me-own".
*** Actually, from what this troper reads it appears the movies pronounce her name differently than what Rowling says in the fourth book is correct.
***This troper recalls a classmate around the time of the first book ignoring the order of letters in her name and insisting, with typical self-assured tone, that it was supposed to be "Her-moiny".
***Hermione's case is actually a pretty interesting one : Hermione is actually the french adaptation of Hèrmionè in ancient greek. It's supposed to be read in French : "Ea (as in bear) - rr - mi (as in bit) - o - n." It's one of these names which end up in another language because of popular works' translations (Hermione is a pretty common name in many greek tragedies) rather than day-to-day common talk. So any english-look-a-like pronounciation of "Hermione" is actually an error to begin with... This leads to a problem in the french translation of Goblet of Fire : any french-speaking person has no problem determinating how to pronounce the name (since there's only one possible option) and yet Hermione somehow has to explain to Krum how you pronounce her name. This makes him look much dumber than he actually is...
***Erm..Krum's not French. He's Bulgarian, I think. So Hermione having to spell it out for him is actually plausible.
**And Rowling gets this too. Her name is pronounced "rolling" (as in pin), but people often say ROW (rhymes with cow)-ling.
* In ''Anne of Avonlea'', the second ''AnneOfGreenGables'' book, the mother of two of Anne's students insists on their last name being pronounced Don''nell'', accent on the second syllable. (She also insists on her son being called St. Clair, although he prefers his birth name of Jacob. Poor kid.)
** That's actually how this troper has always heard that name (usually in the form of "Mac Donnell") pronounced in Atlantic Canada, probably to diferentiate them from the millions of Mac Donalds around.
* There's a meta-example in the Victorian novel ''Barchester Towers''. One character has the last name Slope, which the narrator informs us was originally Slop (he is supposed to be the descendant of a character from ''Tristram Shandy'') but was changed for "euphony". It was noted by John Sutherland, that the author's name, Trollope, would be a word for prostitute without that important e at the end.
* Inverted by Chris Cwej in the ''DoctorWho'' spin-off novels. His surname should be pronounced "Shvay", but because everyone pronounces it "Kwedge" he's decided to go along with it. In his first appearance, though, his new partner Roz Forrester pronounces it ''correctly'', and he corrects her.
* Subverted in ''Don Juan'' by LordByron: In order to rhyme with such phrases as "new one" and "true one", the name Don Juan has to be pronounced "don-DZHU-an".
* Sneaking onto Imperial Center as a battered, partly cybernetic Imperial pilot, [[XWingSeries Wedge Antilles]] goes by Colonel Antar Roat, and has to tell a customs official that it's pronounced Ro-at. The buzz of the voice modulator - cybernetic, remember? - makes him all but unintelligible.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In an episode of {{Frasier}}, after a family embarrassment, Niles Crane's wife Maris tries to save face by adding an accent to the "e" of her name on her memos, so that her name is read as Maris Crah-NAY.
* ''TheColbertReport'' (Col-BEAR Re-poor).
** In one of the early adverts for the show, Colbert tries to justify it by saying that "It's French, bitch!". Some believe this is untrue because the surname Colbert is actually Irish (but see below).
*** The existence of at least one Frenchman named Colbert (i.e. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance) justifies Stephen Colbert's French pronunciation.
*** And, in fact, Colbert pronounces the final T when reprimanding himself under his breath.
*** He also pronounces it with the final T during the 2008 Writer's Strike, he also pronounces "report" with the T.
*** The pronunciation of "Report" has about five or six different puns in it; it's not just about "pronouncing it posh".
*** According to one of his older brothers (who used to teach at this troper's school) it's officially pronounced Col-BEAR. That's the way students were always told to pronounce it.
** The name in reality is Teutonic ie. early German. The original is Ceolbearht, or "bright ship". As the Teutonic Franks actually lived in what's now northeastern France it's fair to consider it a French name, but there is no way in Hell it could be considered "Irish" except by immigration, which is what happened: the Irish Colberts are descended from French immigrants to Munster. (Or, I guess, by Americans who think everything conceivable is Irish because Irish Is Better.)
** In [[http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/jon_stewart_stephen_colbert_americas_anchors/page/6 this article]], Colbert reveals that he pronounced it Col-bert until he went to college and then self-consciously put on the current pronunciation. He has said that some of his brothers and sisters use Col-bert and some Col-BEAR.
** I believe Colbert himself has said that the pronunciation is a way for us to tell the difference between his real personality (by pronouncing the T) and his stage personality (not pronouncing it).
** Also: Col-[[EverythingsWorseWithBears BEAR]]. It's [[IsntItIronic ironic]], [[ThisIsASentenceBitch bitch.]]
*Mrs "Bouquet" (actually Bucket) from ''KeepingUpAppearances''. Note that her husband always pronouces it Bucket when she's not around.
* ''RedDwarf'', "Kryten":
-->'''Rimmer:''' You always put the emphasis on "Rim" in "Rimmer". Makes me sound like a lavatory disinfectant. \\
'''Lister:''' Well, what do you want me to call you? "Rim-MAIR"!?
* In ''{{Scrubs}}'', a common RunningGag involves the particularly hirsute background character "Dr. Beardface". It seems like a nickname until Dr. ''Beardfacé'' corrects them that it's "Beard-FA-SAY!"
** In one episode, J. D. remembers that the correct pronunciation is something like, but not quite, Beardface, but all he can come up with is "Beardmouth!"
** Keith's Dudemeister's last name is from German, properly pronounced "Du-De-Meister". Elliot says it means "Master of Dudes".
*** This German Troper can affirm that -- although, if meant to mean "Master of Dudes", then the "Dude", used as a foreign word, would be spoken as normal and not in syllables. Not to mention that he'd be laughed at for that name.
* A ''SaturdayNightLive'' sketch involved a couple trying to decide on a name for their expected child; the husband ends up rejecting practically every common name because it's too prone to being mocked. It's revealed at the end of the sketch that the husband's name is "Asswipe"... pronounced "ahs-WEE-pay".
** Said husband, of course, was actually Nicolas Cage.
* Mocked on ''MontyPython's Flying Circus'':
-->'''Interviewer:''' Good evening. I have with me in the studio tonight one of Britain's leading skin specialists -- Raymond Luxury Yacht.\\
'''Raymond:''' That's not my name.\\
'''Interviewer:''' I'm sorry -- Raymond Luxury Yatch-t.\\
'''Raymond:''' No, no, no -- it's spelled Raymond Luxury Yatch-t, but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove".\\
'''Interviewer:''' You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you.\\
'''Raymond:''' Ah, anti-semitism!
** Inverted in another sketch:
--->'''Mr. Anemone:''' Give me the 'oop.\\
'''Mr. Chigger:''' What?\\
'''Mr. Anemone:''' Oh, I don't suppose we know what an 'oop is. I suppose pater thought they were a bit common, except on the bleedin' croquet lawn.\\
'''Mr. Chigger:''' Oh, a ''hoop''.\\
'''Mr. Anemone:''' "Oh, an hoop"... thank you, your bleeding Highness.
* Dr. Spaceman from ''[[{{ptitleolsdue4jfzga}} 30 Rock]]'' pronounces his name "spa-CHEMM-'n". Oddly, so does everyone else except resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Tracy Jordan.
* Rik Mayall's character on ''TheNewStatesman'', Alan Bastard, spells his surname "b'Stard" just to make sure everyone pronounces it the way he prefers.
** Partly TruthInTelevision, "Bastard", "b'Stard" and several other variants were quite common at one time. They were mainly families descended from the unacknowledged offspring of Plantagenet monarchs.
** Another of Rik Mayall's characters insists that his surname "Twat" is pronounced "Thwaite".
* In the first season of ''Yes Minister'', Jim Hacker's political adviser Frank Weisel (WYE-zel) is repeatedly (deliberately) addressed by Sir Humphrey and Bernard as "Mr Weasel".
* Mr. Looney ("Loo-NAY. It's French.") in ''FamilyMatters''. This one actually ''would'' be pronounced like that in French, though the French dub simply uses the US pronounciation for all names anyway.
* Guy Secretan from ''GreenWing'' went to Whiteleaf Public School, but call it that and face his wrath: it's pronounced Wit-lehf
* ''{{Torchwood}}'' mentions the "estate agent pronunciation" of the Cardiff district of Splott. "Splowe" is a reasonable approximation of the estate agent pronunciation. The real pronunciation is phonetic.
* In ''{{Between the Lions}}'', Dr Nitwit expressly prefers "nit-WHITE".
* Warren Buffett has appeared several times on ''AllMyChildren'' since the early 90's. Opal always pronounces it Warren Buffay.
* ''AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' had two recurring characters who played to this trope. The first (and definitely the most memorable) was Doctor Vink ("with a ''vvvuh'', ''vvvuh''!") who was constantly referred to as "Doctor Fink". The other (and more in line with the trope) was [[strike:Mister]] Sardo, who would constantly berate people for emphasizing his name's first syllable, as well as adding the honorific ("It's Sar''do''! No "mister", accent on the ''do''!"). The two actually met in one episode (and were [[HoYay surprisingly slashy]]...).
* Manservant Neville from ''TheMiddleman'' (pronounced "m'nSERvant").
* A Bit Of Fry And Laurie featured a characteristically absurd example: Derek Nippl-e, whose surname was pronounced by dropping a pen onto a desk. It got sillier from there.
* Shaun Micallef played with this once in a sketch about Dracula: ''(heavy Romanian accent)'' "It is actually pronounced, Dra-coo-la."
* Bertram Wooster, from ''Jeeves and Wooster'', always has his name pronounced like Birdie Wooster (rhyming with rooster) by the American characters on the show. (Usually British actors pretending to be American.)
* Parodied on an episode of ''QI''. After Rich Hall suggested the existence of a town called "Satanismymaster-on-Rye", Bill Bailey claimed that the correct pronunciation was "Simster".
* A one-shot character on ICarly's name was not Susie, it was Su-ZAY.
* A stuck-up reporter's name on True Jackson, V.P.'s name sounded like Kitty Monroe, but was spelled Kitty Monreaux.
* One episode of ''TheNanny'' had Maxwell Sheffield pronouncing Fran Fine's surname as "fee-NAY" in an attempt to impress his grandmother.
* A running gag in ''GetSmart'' had Max always pronouncing The Claw as "The Craw," pronouncing it as the heavily-accented Asian villain does, which usually ended up in an exchange like "Not 'Craw' -- CRAW!" . . . "Ah yes, 'The Craw'"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Possibly an inversion, WeirdAlYankovic's name is pronounced the way it's spelled: YAHN-ko-vick. However, countless people insist on saying it like YAN-ko-vich (and sometimes even spell it like that - I've even seen "Weird Al Yankovitch" a few times). It should be noted the "Yan" is actually pronounced nasally as if it were French (sounds roughly like "Yong"), rather than rhyming with the English word "van".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
*Brian Regan has a comedy routine in which he has trouble remembering names, and he stresses the difficulty of making a mistake when somebody else's name is similar to another.
-->"Oh, hey there, Carolyn."
-->"It's Caroline. It's Caroline, Brian."
-->"It's Bri-awnh! Yes, my name is ''Brauaaagh!'' It's very hard to say my name correctly, because my name is ''Brynamengenjah!'' Can you say that? Very few can."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Old-school announcer Gordon Solie, trying to class things up, would pronounce "Suplex" as "Souplay".
** It's pronounced "souplay" in amateur wrestling, partly because of the sport's European origins and partly because some people involved with amateur wrestling view pro wrestling as a mockery of their sport and want to distance themselves from it.
* Japanese wrestler Taka Michinoku's name is often typed TAKA Michinoku. (In Japan, his character used to insist that the "Taka" be in "American letters", while the "Michinoku" (like most other names) was printed in Kanji.) While it isn't pronunciation per se, it ''is'' a character trying to distinguish himself and "social climb" through a name difference.
** This trope might also apply to KENTA (Kenta Kobayashi) and CIMA (Nobuhiko Oshima), who're referred to as such, never using kanji or katakana. Averted by Shingo Takagi in Japan (where his name kanji are used), but he fell right into it in {{ROH}} where he was billed as SHINGO.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has the bulette, whose name is "pronounced Boo-lay." If it were really a French word, that is exactly how it ''wouldn't'' be pronounced. Apparently, it's now back to being the "bullet", as the person who wrote the 2nd Edition caption was being pretentious.
** There are also the evil fish-men called the sahuagin, which is frequently pronounced "sa-HWA-gin" but is officially (according to the sourcebook ''The Sea Devils'') supposed to be "sa-HOO-a-gin".
*** Among this editor's circle of ''D&D''-playing friends, it's "sa-HAY-gin". Didn't help much when he started playing the first ''FinalFantasy'', in which certain sea creatures are given the abbreviated name "SAHAG".
*** D&D Online: ''Stormreach'', which includes some voice acting, returns the pronunciation to "sa-HWA-gin".
** Also in the ''Monstrous Manual'' are the tabaxi, panther-like humanoids who are pronounced "ta-BAX-ee" or "tah-BAHSH-ee" depending on the clan.
** Not to forget the Ixitxachitl. And no, you wouldn't get any two people to agree on how to pronounce that. The Monstrous Manual gives the "correct" pronunciation as "Ish-it-SHACH-eet-el".
*** You could start by getting some archaelogists, specializing in Aztec language.
*** No, you just need someone who speaks Spanish. Since Aztec words were first transcribed in the Roman alphabet by (relatively modern) Spanish explorers, all of the words are phonetic in Spanish. The only complication is that the "-tl" construction doesn't appear in Spanish, but it is pretty much pronounced like anyone would try and pronounce it. Personally This Troper thinks Aztec words are pretty awesome; particularly the story of Popocatepetl and Ixtachihuatl, two mountains near Mexico City which were once lovers; their names are just so damn awesome.
* Then there's "Lich", which is pronounced like "Like" but with the "ch" sound as in "Bach" or "loch". A lot of people say "Laitch", "Litch" or "Lick".
** Actually, according to [[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lich Dictionary.com]], it's "Litch" (/lɪtʃ/ in IPA)
* In the future setting of ''[[{{The Chronicles Of Fate}} Chaos]]'', the pronunciation of the word [[{{Memetic Mutation}} "meme"]] (memes have become an even much more important concept in the future than they are today) has changed to "mem" (rhymes with "gem"), as opposed to today's "meem" (rhymes with "dream").
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* William Barfe (it's Bar-''fay'') from the musical ''The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee''.
* ''LesMiserables'' is neither "les mis-er-AH-blehs" nor "les MIS-err-ah-buhls". It's "LAY mis-err-AHB".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* [[MetroidPrime It's pronounced SAM-us, not SAY-mus.]]
* Derby [pronounced "DAR-bee"] in {{Bully}}.
** [[{{Americanitis}} Which is how you pronounce the horse race.]]
* Charmles in ''DragonQuestVIII'' refers to himself as "Sharm-LAY". He's the only one who does -- everyone calls him "CHARM-ulz", or [[PrinceCharmless Charmless]] when he's not looking.
* Kyushiro from ''SamuraiShodown'' used to correct the game's pronunciation of his name, when he won. ("Winner: Kyoshiro!" "''Kyuuu-SHI-rooo!''")
* [[DynastyWarriors "Ts'ao Ts'ao," not "Cow Cow"]]. Note though all of the ''Warriors'' games after ''Dynasty Warriors 5'' -- both of the ''Warriors Orochi'' duology and ''Dynasty Warriors 6'' -- got this right (with the exception of Wei's ''Warrior Orochi'' ending), as do the voiceovers in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI'', but some pronunciations are still audibly off, and there was the unfortunately-named [[UnfortunateNames Cao Pi]]...
** This troper heard it (from a critic in a review for the movie Red Cliff) pronounced as "Chow Chow". I like imagine his son was then "Chow Pie".
*** More likely "Chow Pee"...
* When ThisTroper and several of her friends watched another friend playing FinalFantasyXII, the pronunciation of Marquis...just ow... She has since learned that the English version is pronounced the way they say it in the game, but it's spelled Marquess. The correct pronunciations are "markee" and "markwis", respectively.
* This troper had to resist pulling his hair out over his friends pronouncing the Final Fantasy spell "METEO" as "Muh-TAY-Oh". The fact that it brought down meteors (the spell name being METEOR shrunk to fit the interface) was completely ignored, even after this troper pointed it out.
* The character of Dudley Cholmondely in {{Broken Sword}}: The Sleeping Dragon. His name is pronounced "Chumley"; justified in that "Cholmondely" is actually pronounced that way (see the ''Discworld'' example above).
* Ryu in the ''StreetFighter'' series is often pronounced "Rai-you" by people who were fans of the series during the original ''Street Fighter II'' days, when the announcer didn't pronounce his name. (It's actually "Ri-you" pronounced as one syllable.)
* Cait Sith from FinalFantasyVII, pronounced "Ket shee". He's named after the Cat Sìth, a creature from Scottish mythology (hence why he talks with a Scottish accent).
** Because it's SO EASY to tell the accent of a character in a game that has no voice acting.
* [[NinjaGaiden It's Ninja GUY-den, not Ninja GAY-den.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* [[HomestarRunner Strong Bad]] once did the same for Illinois ("Eel-ee-nwah"). He also calls Texas "Tejas", pronounces "California" the Spanish way, etc.
** "Eel-ee-nwah" is pretty much how it's pronounced in French, though, and this troper always assumed that was the original pronounciation that got deformed in some way, since "Illinois" looks very much like a French word, and not much like something English-speakers would make up.
*** You're on the right track. It's a French adaptation of an Algonquin word. The silent 's' was definitely added by the French. It was probably pronounced something like "Eel-ee-nee-weh".
** He also (at least once) pronounced Ohio "OH-HEE-OH". This could be a subtle, running gag about him making just as many goofs as he corrects in his SB-Emails or a part of his oft-childish personality and his accent.
**Justified in [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/compycatalog.html Compy Catalog]], when he decides to buy a "Compé" to replace the Lappy 486, [[spoiler:which he blew up with a USB self-destruct button in [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/hremail3184.html Hremail 3184]]]]. The Compé is a lot newer than the Lappy, and comes with a built-in "[[FanNickname Virtual Paper]]".

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''[[http://www.billvolk.com Volklore]]'''s female protagonist, Femálë Protagonist.
* Also, from SluggyFreelance we have Dr Hot-Chick: "It's pronounced HAUGHT-SHEIK!"
* [[http://samandfuzzy.com/1062 It's Too-che-sto-nay instead of Touch Stone.]]
* TheCyantianChronicles: Various Cyantian characters use Latin pronunciations for their names. IE:
** Chatin = Sha-Teen not Satin.
*** Collin calls Twinky on calling Chatin "Satin" at one point. Although, to be fair, Twinky first heard Chatin's name through a translator, which translated it into "Satin".
** Cilke = Sil-Kay not Silk
*** Cilke doesn't mind getting called Silk, because it's such a pretty fabric.
** Chrome = K-Ro-May not Chrome, though he doesn't mind the alternate pronunciation.
** Cardde = Kar-Day not Card.
** Calle = Kal-ay not Cal
** Cisco is a subversion, as he's still Cisco.
** Syrys = Sigh-russ or Cyrus not Sir-iss
*** None of these are strictly Latin pronunciations, though (and at least two misinterpret "c" and "ch" in the Latin alphabet). To do that, they'd have to be pronounced "KA-tin"/"KA-teen", "KILL-kuh," "KRO-muh," "KAR-duh," "KAL-uh," and "Sürüs," with the ü similar to French ''u.'' (It's one where you pucker your lips quite a bit to produce the sound.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Used in ''KimPossible'', when Kim meets her brothers' guidance counselor.
-->'''Kim:''' ... Miss... Guide?\\
'''Miss Guide:''' "Guh-''DAY''", dear.\\
'''Kim:''' Uh, g'day to you too.
* On ''KingOfTheHill'', Rad Thibodeaux, a "self-proclaimed genius", pronounces his last name as "Thi-ba-DAY-oks." This leads to Hank attempting to correct him (Thibodeaux is French -- a very common Cajun name pronounced like Hank says):
-->'''Hank:''' Isn't that pronounced "Tib-a-do?"\\
'''Rad:''' Well, you know, sometimes, by mistake.
* Newscaster Brian Pinhead (pih-NAYD) on ''TheTick''
** Likely motivated by the fact that it's a MeaningfulName.
* On ''[[BobbysWorld Bobby's World]]'', Bobby's family name is Generic, pronounced GEN-er-ic and mispronounced by everyone else in the world. This is probably based on Howie Mandel's experience with people pronouncing it MAN-del.
* Inverted on ''TheSimpsons'', when Moe makes fun of Homer for Frenchly pronouncing garage as "ga-RAJ" (the correct way in America). Moe prefers the term "car hole".
** Also on ''TheSimpsons'', Marge's country club friends Karen, Gillian, Elizabeth, Patricia, and Susan all pronounced their names differently than the norm. She also had a friend named Rauberta, but that's not as funny in the list since it's spelled differently as well as being pronounced differently.
** There's also Krabappel which is pronounced "Cruh-BAW-pull". Not sure what that is, but it seems designed just so you avoid reading it as "crabapple".
** And again when Bart corrects Homer on the pronounciation of "party", insisting that it's "par-''tay''".
* In ''{{Futurama}}'':
--->'''Zapp:''' Shampagin?\\
'''Leela:''' ''(sarcastically)'' I didn't realize you were such a coin-a-sewer.
* Parodied on ''DrawnTogether'', during one of their finale's when Captain Hero corrected the host saying "It's pronounced Kah-Pee-Tawn. The Hero is silent." This is also a reference to Captain Hero's behavior after his last name, Shero, is revealed. It's pronounced "Hero", the "S" is silent.
* When Peter from ''FamilyGuy'' goes to an ultra-posh auction house surrounded of the wealthiest elite, he says "It would look really good in Lois's crapper... I mean, ''crapier''." This pronunciation is immediately corroborated. "Oh yes, I would simply love that in ''my crapier''!"
* Done in an episode of ''TheProudFamily'', where Penny gains a case of AcquiredSituationalNarcissism and insists on "Penn-''AY''."
** Like spughetay! Cos it rhymes with ''money'', y'all!
* This was done in ''TheCritic'', too. Jay goes to a fast food restaurant and addresses the clerk by the name on his nametag, "Pizzaface." The clerk of course responds with, "Hey, that's Pizza-fah-chay!"
* An episode of ''TaleSpin'' featured a shifty client who was quick to point out his name was "pronounced ''wee-ZEL!''"
* One episode of ''Veggietales'' features the tale of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, where the title characters were nicknamed Rack, Shack, and Benny because their real names were hard to pronounce, even to themselves:
-->'''Rack:''' I'm Shadrach!\\
'''Shack:''' I'm Meshach!\\
'''Benny:''' I'm a Bumblebee... a Bennyboo... I'm Benny!
* ''{{The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin}}'' features the villain Jack W. Tweeg. His name is pronounced as would be expected (rhymes with "league"), but his subordinate, LB, insists on [[MyNameIsNotDurwood misprouncing it in humourous ways]] to mock his boss. Tweeg even has a VillainSong about how to pronounce his name.
* TimonAndPumbaa once met a suspicious-looking raccoon named Thief insisted that his name was pronounced "theif" (rhymes with "life").
* LiloAndStitch: the Series has the villainous Dr. Hämsterviel. Pronounced HOHM-ster-vheel, although many prononce it like "hampster wheel". The fact that Hämsterviel is in fact an intelligent hampster doesn't help the situation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A lot of Finnish place names get pronounced wrong. The capital is often pronounced Hell-SINK-ee, but proper Finnish pronunciation is something like HELL-sing-kee. (The Swedish say Helsingfors, pronounced Hell-sing-FORSH.) Tampere too is often pronounced Tam-PAIR, but it's actually said as TAM-pe-re. Finnish pronunciation is phonetic, and the stress always goes on the first syllable.
* The capital city of Russia is pronounced MOSK-oh by the British and MOSS-cow by Americans. The Russians say Mask-VA (Москва).
* Matt Groening, creator of TheSimpsons and {{Futurama}}. His name is pronounced "GRAY-ning", but many people say it as "Groaning". This even got a reference in The Simpsons Game, where he claimed even he wasn't sure how it was pronounced anymore.
** Like John Boehner below, he's probably a victim of the fact, that the german letter ''ö'' does not exist in the english alphabet, so it's often written as ''oe'' instead. Which does not sound the least like ''ö'', no matter how you pronounce it in english, but as the sound is usually completely unpronounceable to native english speakers, german emigrants could come with whatever pronounciation they liked.
*** Well, if his name was originally Gröning, it WOULD actually sound close to "Groaning" with German pronunciation, so my guess is he deliberately pronounces it differently. He was born in America, but his father was German.
* The working class suburb Mangere in Auckland, New Zealand (pronounced MAHN-GE-RE according to the Maori or MAN-gerry in common use), is sometimes fondly referred to as "Mon-JERE" by its inhabitants.
***That's a joke people! (Not snobbery...)
* "Tar-zhay" (Target) stores (though often said in jest).
* ESPN guys love to pronounce Detroit as if it were still a French word ("Day-twa"), just for a joke.
* Ronald Reagan's last name is traditionally pronounced "Reegan" not "Raygan" (see the films of ''TheBigSleep'' for example), but the change in pronunciation was likely to make it less Irish-sounding during an era when [[{{Oireland}} the Irish]] were [[{{AcceptableTarget}} Acceptable Targets]].
* Chatham in Kent (UK) is pronounced chatt-am. People not from Kent often mistake it as chay-famm.
** Chatham, New Brunswick also uses the Kentish pronunciation (or course, being named after the Earl of Chatham helped).
*** Chatham, NJ, US is in the same boat, non-oddly enough. That could be blamed on England, one surmises.
*Gotham in Nottinghamshire in the UK is pronounced "Goat-ham", as opposed to the more famous Batman-related pronunciation
** LOTS of British place names are mispronounced outside the country, particularly in the USA. Edinburgh (pron. Edinburra, not as in Pittsburgh), Glasgow (pron. as in owe, not as in how), Birmingham (Pron. Birmingum not Birming-ham), Norwich (Pron. Norrich, not Nor-wich) etc etc etc.
** Oddly enough, no one ever seems to refer to New Hampshire as "New Hamp-shire". At least not in this troper's experience (his relatives from the state always referring to it as something approximating "New Hamp-sure").
** The band Moxy Fruvous pronounce it New Hamp-shire, but it's as a joke
*** While we're on the subject of New Hampshire, there's the town of Lebanon, NH. Locals pronounce it "Leb-a-none" while the country of Lebanon is pronounced "Leb-a-nahn."
*** Lebanon, OR is pronounced "Leb-nin."
** And conversely, BBC newscasters tend to pronounce the name of the largest city in Texas as "Houseton" rather than "Hyooston".
*** Is that actually true? I listen to the BBC World Service every day and have never heard that!
*** Though Houston Street in Manhattan retains the traditional British pronounciation, thus the neighborhoods north and south of that street are called SoHo and NoHo instead of SoHyu and NoHyu.
**** Houston County in Georgia is named after the same person as the NYC street, and thus pronounced the same way.
**** Houston, Delaware is pronounced "Houseton" by the locals, who may be the only people who know that Houston, Delaware is an actual place.
*** And the organization whose mission control is located there as "Nassau".
*** This troper has observed that those native to Houston pronounce it without the H, YOU-ston.
*** [[GlennMagusHarvey This troper]] heard, just tonight (25 Dec. 2008), a British reporter talking about a playwright, and using the pronunciation "th'YAYter" for [[strike:theater]] theatre.
**** And now he knows why it's pronounced "thee-AY-ter" in the Interior Crocodile Alligator song.
** Tolkien is probably to blame for everyone outside the UK pronouncing "Somethingshire" county names as Something-Shire rather than Something-shuh.
*** Closer to Something-shear (in the South anyway).
**** Good point. You could probably find exceptions to just about any of these rules by travelling around Britain enough. That may be part of the problem.
** And let's not get started on "cesters", Leicester, Bicester, all with silent "ce"s! And don't forget Toaster, I mean, Towcester.
*** Similar letters, different sounds: the city of Lancaster in south-central Pennsylvania is called "LANG-cas-ter". Call it "LAN-cas-ter" and you'll get funny looks.
**** This troper notes that in PA, the presence of or absence of a "G" sound in Lancaster is rather less important than putting the [[AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLAble emphasses on the right sill obble]]-- it's LANK-a-stir.
**** Lancaster, California, about an hour north of LA, is LAN-cas-ter.
**** In Nebraska, it's "LAN-cas-ter". In Oregon, it's "Len-CAS-ter". And don't get me started on "Norfolk".
**** Some call it Nor-FOKE, some NOR-fork (for the north fork of the river)... but the Virginian prononciation is less family friendly.
*** Nebraska also has Beatrice, pronounced "bee-AT-ris", and Kearney, pronounced "KAR-nee".
*** Cirencester is possibly the worst example of this -- it's pronounced "sister" and is often written as "Ci'ster" on road signs when the full name is too long, making it surprisingly difficult to get the right motorway exit.
****Are you sure? [[TwilightLord I]] lived near Cirencester (UK) for 15 years and I, my family, and everyone I know always pronounced it "Sigh-ren-sess-ter".
*** Bostonians pronounce Worcester as "Wuster", and New Jerseyanians pronounce Gloucester "Gloster". If you pronounce it another way, they laugh.
**** That should be "Wusstah" and "Glosstah" as no self-respecting Southern New Englander actually pronounces the "r" on the end of a word!
**** Speaking of Southern New England, some Rhode Island cities and towns have odd pronounciations. Pawtucket is prounounced "P'tuckit" as in, the aw is silent (no matter what anybody else says) and Coventry is "Kah-ven-tree" and then there's East and West Greenwich which is pronounced "Grennich". And Warwick sounds like "Warrick" or "Wark"
**** [[GlennMagusHarvey This troper]] makes sure to pronounce it "incorrectly" if he actually wants to spell it to people.
**** It's worth noting that this is the also correct way to pronounce the English places the above were named for, so don't go thinking it's the Bostonians that are strange -- it's the rest of you who can't speak proper like.
**** New Jerseyites also tend to laugh at how furriners misprounce any of the hundred or so place names in the state derived from Native American words (personal favorites of this troper are people who mispronounce AB-seh-con as Ab-SEE-con, and people who say man-ah-LAP-ann instead of the proper Man-AL-ah-pan).
**** Another tricky one: Wayzata, Minnesota is pronounced "Why-ZETTA."
***** That's gonna be [[TheWorldEndsWithYou zetta hard to remember.]] *ba-dum-tish*
**** One documentary reenactment shows escaped German POWs in the middle of WWII ask for directions to "Glaow-chester". The passerby they're talking to responds "I think you mean Gloucester, old chap" and [[WhatAnIdiot gives them directions]]. How much of the reenactments is word for word isn't clear, but they did get directions claiming to be [[PaperThinDiguise Danish tourists]].
***This troper has heard the word "Launceston" pronounced three different ways: "LaunCESton" for the one in Tasmania (pron "Tas-MAY-nya") and "Lawnston"/"Lanston" for the place in Cornwall.
** A lot of these centre around Nottinghamshire. As well as Gotham, there is Tythby, commonly misspelt Tithby and pronounced Tiv-bee. However the most confusing has to be Belvoir Castle, which is pronounced beaver. Yeah.
** Norfolk is pretty good for these too, and is a quick way of telling natives from foreigners (anyone not from Norfolk, particularly tourists). There is Wymondham (Windham), Costessey (Cossy), Happisburg (Haysborough) for just a few. There are then some more conventional ones like Worsted (Wusted, like Worcester), Roughton (Rowton, as in argue, not Row the boat), and of course Norwich (which rhymes with porridge). If trying to pronounce some of the names is bad enough, trying to translate names (or anything else) from Norfolk dialect into anything like English can be very difficult, and some places are pronounced differently depending on what part of Norfolk the speaker is from. Lowestoft for example is acceptable pronounced straight, but will usually either be heard as "Loostoft" or "Lowstoft". Then again, coming from Loughborough in Leicestershire, and just visting Norfolk regularly enough to if not pass as a local, at least not get laughed at, I can't say too much.
*** Another interesting one is "Great Yarmouth" it's not just natives, but anyone who has spent more than a few hours there is likely to drop the "Great". Then again, the same applies to Great Britain too. In general you can be fairly confident names will either be pronounced strangely or just be downright bizarre in the UK (the south-west is good for these - Chipping Sodbury, Monkton Farleigh, Nempnett Thrubwell).
* The surname St. John, which the British pronounce "Sinjin". Apparently Peter Benchley wasn't a fan of this one; one of the first things we find out about the jerkass character in ''The Beast'' is that he insists everyone pronounce his name this way.
*** Although that simply seems spiteful.
** And then there's ''FourWeddingsAndAFuneral'':
-->'''Clergyman:''' I, Bernard Godfrey Saint John [=DeLady=]...\\
'''Bernard:''' I, Bernard ''Geoffrey Sinjin'' [=DeLady=]
** Likewise an ''Inspector Morse'' episode in which Sgt. Lewis keeps addressing an obnoxious "Sinjun" as "Mr Saint John".
** Likewise, the surname St. Clair has become "Sinclair" after rolling around in British mouths for a few hundred years, like a rock being polished in a tumbler.
*** David Warner's character St. John Talbot in ''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier'' pronounces it Sinjin.
** A legendary beach volleyball player, born Christopher St. John, is known popularly as Sinjin Smith.
** The [[XMen X-Men]] villain Pyro, whose real name is St. John Allerdyce. Chris Claremont meant it to be a pun on his fire-based ability. He also meant the demonic villain N'Astirh to be pronounced 'nastier'.
* Deborah Kerr. In an attempt to teach people the correct way to pronounce her name, the studios advertised one of her early films with the tagline "Deborah Kerr is the star," encouraging the public to make the rhyme.
** To make matters more confusing, the contemporary celebrity couple Walter and Jean Kerr did not pronounce ''their'' name that way.
* Inversion: the original spelling of the popular Bic brand of pen was changed for US audiences who would not know that the 'h' at the end was silent.
** So it was "Bich" before? Like, bitch without t?
*** Yes. It was the surname of the company founder. "Bich" probably means "female deer", but could also mean "fat man". No relation at all to the English word.
*** [[SouthPark "'Cause 'bich' is Latin for generositeee!"]]... Sorry.
* There is a city in south Texas whose name is spelled Refugio, but because the Irish and German refugees who settled there in the 1850s couldn't pronounce the name in Spanish, even the Spanish-speakers now call it Referio.
* Scientific or computing terms suffer from mispronunciation a lot. For example, the file extension "GIF" is (or at least, by its creators) pronounced with a soft g, like the peanut butter, not a hard g.
** And PNG is, according to its creators, pronounced as "ping". Seriously.
* Anyone who's ever worked in customer service, collections, telemarketing, or anything else that involves dealing with hundreds of people over the phone on a daily basis WILL encounter names to stretch one's credibility, forcing the poor employee to invent ludicrously posh pronunciations on the spot, because pronouncing the name as written will most likely get you slapped -- yes, even over the phone line.
* Brian Regan (pronounced Ree-gan), the stand-up comedian, has a funny rant about this trope and {{My Nayme Is}}.
* Taliaferro rhymes with "Oliver".
** This actually comes up as a (minor) plot point in Robert A. Heinlein's ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls''.
* All Japanese words have the same stress on each mora, which is kind of like a syllable. Most english speakers already observe this rule without knowing it, but this troper had a fairly clueless teacher the past school year that mentioned the atom bombing of a city named "ha-row-sha-ma" as opposed to "he-row-she-ma", the correct pronounciation.
** Anglophones have a hard time with the glides (a combination of consonant-ee mora and y mora, think the kyo in Tokyo or Kyoto). You hear people talk about the Kai-yoto Accords or Kee-yoto accords a lot. The correct is Kyoh-to Accords. Hard K followed by y's consonant sound.
*** A similar thing happens in Russian -- which also makes it hard for some Russian words to be transliterated into English. For example, the composer's name ''Skryabin'' is actually two syllables--''skrya'' and ''bin'', and the "ya" part being the vowel.
* Inversion: The Irish surname Costello, which is often pronounced "Cost-ELL-o" by people outside Ireland, is in fact pronounced as "COST-ell-o", with the emphasis on the first syllable.
* And speaking of Irish surnames, see if you can figure out how to pronounce "Suileabháin," if you don't speak Irish. Give up? [[GilbertAndSullivan He and Gilbert]] wrote a lot of musicals. Now try "Mac Amhalghaidh".
** Isn't that Macaulay? But that's a Scots name.
* The English word "forte" has two meanings. One comes from Italian and is pronounced "for-tay", and it is used to note that you should play something loudly in music. The other is French and, despite common belief, ''should'' be pronounced "fort", as in "Fort Wayne". Given the fact that it's gotten more common to hear it always pronounced "for-tay," it's probably completely acceptable. It is not, however, ''ever'' spelled "forté".
* Brian Jacques, author of the ''{{Redwall}}'' novels, pronounces his last name "Jakes", as did the actress Hattie Jacques.
** And [[QuestionableContent Jeph Jacques]] pronounces it "Jacks".
* [[TheLordOfTheRings J. R. R. Tolkien's]] last name is pronounced "TOL-keen", but many people pronounce it "TOL-kin". This has become a little less common since TheMovie of ''[=LotR=]'' came out.
** You mean there are only two syllables?
* Real-life sort of inversion, the author Edmée Elizabeth Monica de la Pasture translated her last name into Franglais to get the pen name E.M. Delafield.
* Arkansas.
** Not exactly made easier by the fact that the ''river'' Arkansas is actually pronounced Ar-KAN-Zes. Confused yet?
*** Not in the state in question. I'm from there, and the river and state are both pronounces AR-kan-saw.
*** Of course the state pronunciation, AR-kan-saw, is the official ''legislated'' pronunciation.
** Then you have the towns: El-do-RAY-do, Ne-VAY-duh, DEW-muss, luh-FAY-yet, Derks (or is it DER-ricks?), OH-see-O-luh...
*** At least most of the French loans are properly pronounced, if not spelled (I dare you to find Aux Arc and Sumac Overt on a map...)
* Wednesday, typically pronounced "Wens-day" or "Wed-ens-day".
**Which is derived from the Anglo-Saxon for {{NorseMythology "Wotan's Day"}}.
* Southerners are fairly amused when outsiders pronounce Biloxi (MS). It's neither "Bye-LOCKS-ee" nor "Bih-LOCKS-ee," but "Buh-LUCK-see". (Which means ''GuysAndDolls'' messed up by rhyming it with "Roxy".)
** This troper thinks that's a load of [[IncrediblyLamePun bollocks... ee]].
** [[DudeNotFunny Right....]] It's from an Indian name, so the pronunciation is "bih-LUCK-see," like the troper before last said.
* Surnames of foreign origin are often pronounced a ''bit'' different from the way they look...but '''''how the hell''''' do you get "Shuh-SHEV-skee" out of "Krzyzewski"? Uh...considering the second "sh" sound is definitely coming from the second "z", the only logical conclusion is that the first two letters are silent.
** Wouldn't be the only name in sports with two silent letters at the start of their name. The Dallas Mavericks' [=DeSagana=] Diop pronounces his name "suh-GAH-nah JOP".
** The original Polish pronunciation approximates to "kshi-ZHEV-skee" -- as the English language doesn't like certain consonant clusters at the beginning of a word (see also any Anglo-Saxon derived word beginning with "kn" or any Greek derived word beginning with "ps", among others) the K likely got lost somewhere along the line.
** ThisTroper is reminded of the team captain's mispronounciation of "Wierzbowski" in ''[[{{Film/Alien}} Aliens]]''. And in a Real Life example, how many people can properly pronounce Kościuszko? Certainly not the residents of the Mississippi city named after a misspelling of his name (Kosciusko, which Wikipedia says is locally pronounced "kah-zee-ESS-ko").
** In general Polish pronunciation seems to be quite the head scratcher for most non-Slavs. Brzęczy Sczykiewicz, anyone?
*** Bzhenchy Shikyayvich? But then, I live with three Poles.
*** That's Brzęczyszczykiewicz, a last name; Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz from Chrząszczydrzewoszyce, Łękołoty District. In Poland that's also a meme.
** It's Duke.
** Just do what everyone else does and call him Coach K.
* As mentioned under the ''HarryPotter'' entry above; [[ParcaKnight this humble contributor]] can't help thinking the younger Fiennes brother should have got in on the act, giving us the talented acting duo Rafe and Joff.
* The originator of the theory that WilliamShakespeare's plays were actually written by the Earl of Oxford? Mr. J. Thomas Looney, pronounced LOW-nee.
* "February" is commonly pronounced "Feb-you-ary", in an inversion of this.
** Maybe in the US, but in parts of Canada it's more likely to be pronounced "Feb-bur-ary" or even "Feb-beh-wary".
* Similarly inverted: "chaise longue" (i.e. long chair) is commonly pronounced as "chaise lounge" (i.e. chair that switches to English halfway through).
* U.S Representative and House Minority Leader for the 110th Congress John Boehner's last name is supposedly pronounced "BAY-ner", but to this troper (and many others), it's "Boner".
** Very similar to yet another college basketball coaching example--Jim Boeheim (BAY-heim), of Syracuse University.
** On a similar note, the surname of George Bush's vice president (Cheney) is properly pronounced "CHEE-ney", but this troper never seems to hear anyone pronounce it in any way other than "CHAY-ney".
*** It could be because the spelling changed at some point. His ancestors were Chaneys, and in fact he is a distant cousin of the actor Lon Chaney.
* Louisiana and New Orleans are a minefield of this trope. First came the French. No, technically, first came the Indians. Then the French. Then the Spanish, then the Americans, then the Africans, then most of the rest of Europe. For example: New Orleans is never pronounced "Noo Ore-leenz" by locals. "N'awlins" is only heard in deep Cajun country. To locals it's "N'yew Olly-Annes". It gets trickier from there: the major downtown street Carondolet is pronounced phonetically, with a T on the end, not French style. And there are a set of streets named after the muses, leading to nine manglings of Greek: Callie-yop, Melpo-meen, etc.
** The parish (county) itself is pronounced "Or-LEENS", leading to further confusion. But the "New OR-lenz" or "NOR-lenz" pronunciations are relatively common for the city (at least on the North Shore).
** And French people stuck with "La Nouvelle-Orléans".
** Three streets in New Orleans, all pronounced "FOR-shay": Forshey, Fortier, and Foucher.
* And nobody mentioned ''Shia Labeouf''. Sha-ya Lo-bef. This French troper sees two major spelling failures in his last name (his ancestors must have been named ''Leboeuf''), which would be pronounced "Shee-ah La-bey-oof" there, if the French ''Transformers'' trailer did not exist.
** Lo-bef? No, it's la-BOF, isn't it?
***Le-BUHF, actually, both according to the French pronunciation of its spelling, and according to The Other Wiki (though they spell the pronunciation as 'luh-BUFF')
* One of the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's jokes is that his puppet Peanut insists on mispronouncing his name. It's pronounced "DUN-num", but Peanut pronounces it "DUN-ham" -- "You're the other white meat!" He then pronounces Jeff's first name "JEF-fuh", as though the second F weren't silent.
** Peanut also insists in ''Arguing With Myself'' that the town of Santa Ana, California is pronounced "Sah N'tah Ah Nah".
** Oh Jeff-fa-fa, oh Jeff-fa-fa, without me you would suck-ka-ka!
* For fun with sports names, I present three double-letter switch-ups: not only Brett Favre (FARVE), but Isiah Thomas (Eyes-AY-uh) and the most [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]], Dwyane Wade (yeah, it's "Dwayne", and no, that's not a typo). Let's not forget Laveranues Coles, either.
** And Antawn Jamison.
** As well as Joel Przybilla.
**Hockey player Jonathon Toews...the last name is "tayves"
** Chone Figgins, anybody (it's pronounced "Sean/Shawn/however you put it")
* Terri Schiavo's last name should be logically pronounced "SK''YA''-vo" or "skee-AH-vo" (Not "SHAH-vo"; it isn't a German name.) It is in fact "SHAI-vo", as if the I came ''after'' the A. (It doesn't help that [[GlennMagusHarvey This troper]] has an acquaintance with last name Schiavron, which is pronounced "skee-AHV-ron".)
* You can always tell someone from Nevada, because they don't pronounce it "Ne-VAWE-duh". It should be "Ne-VADD-duh".
** And people from Ohio pronounce it "Ne-VAY-duh".
*** This troper has lived in Ohio all his life, and has never heard "Ne-vay-duh." Everyone I have ever known that wasn't needlessly trying to be culturally sensitive (and failing) has always said "Ne-vadd-a."
*** Also from Ohio. Also never heard Ne-VAY-duh.
* Oregon gets a lot of this. The local pronunciation being "OR-igg-un" as opposed to the prevalent "or-uh-GON", to the point where the University of Oregon sells bumper stickers with the phonetic spelling "Orygun".
** And, of course, Oregon, Wisconsin is "or-uh-GON".
** This is addition to the number of times when, riding on the streetcar in downtown Portland, one hears out-of-towners trying to get onto "Cowch" Street instead of "Cooch" Street. And missing the Couch Street stop.
* A city in Washington State is spelled "Anacortes" and is pronounced an-na-COR-tis. ESPN once pronounced it An-NA-cor-TAYZ.
** Thanks to the regular use/corruption of Native American names, there are lots of them in Washington. Sequim, pronounced 'squim'. Puyallup, pronounced 'pew-al-up'. Pend Oreille, pronounced 'pond or-ray'. And like Oregon, your pronouncement of the state name marks you as a native: war-shing-ton.
* Moscow, Idaho is pronounced "Moss-co", not "Moss-cow"
* There's a city in Minnesota called Edina. Most people pronounce it like "Ed-EE-na", but I think it's supposed to be "Eh-DYE-nuh". (This appears to be one of the ways of determining whether the speaker is actually Minnesotan or not...)
** It is E-Die-Nuh. Not Eh-die-nuh, not Eh-dee-nuh, but E-die-nuh.
* A particularly extreme example: Enroughty. Pronounced Darby.
* Many names in Ohio fall under this, mainly being Indian names, though some others. Examples include Gnadenhutten, which is pronounced with a soft, syllabic G, Wapakoneta (woppa-ka-NET-ta), Coshocton (which some locals pronounce with an unneccessary R, kur-shock-ton), Cuyahoga (kye-a-HOE-ga), and Milan (MY-len). This troper prefers to write his hometown as "Uhrichsville, pronounced YER-ix-ville"
** And then of course there's Lima (LIE-ma), Rio Grande (RYE-o Grand), Toledo (American e, as opposed to the one in Spain), and Portsmouth (PORT-smith)
** Add to this Scioto, which is pronounced either 'Sigh-owe-toe' or 'Sigh-owe-tuh', depending on who this troper asks.
** And Versailles, pronounced in the English fashion (Ver-SAILS rather than Vair-SIGH, the French preference) and, of course, Russia. Pronounced "Roo-shee". The story goes that it used to be pronounced properly, then the Cold War happened, and people got dumb.
*** Nothing to do with Ohio, but similar to the Russia/Roo-shee situation, New Berlin in Wisconsin supposedly changed from "New Ber-LIN" to "New BER-lin" during one of the World Wars because of anti-German sentiment.
** And how could we have forgotten Bellefontaine, or "Bell Fountain"?
** Cuyahoga Falls is a particularly strange example here. Although those in the area seem to know the correct pronounciation (when asked), in regular speech, this troper has only ever heard cah-ga. And then there's Mantua (Man-a-way).
* Wisconsin is awash with names, many of Native American origin, that non-Wisconsinites don't pronounce properly (though it's likely the Native American pronunciations were butchered to make the modern names anyway). Often they're mispronounced by other non-local Wisconsinites. One example: Most of us pronounce Muscoda as "mus-KO-duh", until we learn that it's actually the non-intuitive "MUS-kuh-DAY".
* TV and radio journalists often mispronounce the first word in "cache of weapons" as "ka-SHAY". It's actually "kash", like money. The mispronounced word means "cachet", as in "Using a foreign-sounding pronunciation would add a certain cachet to the newscast."
* It's LAN-ca-ster, California, and LENK-eh-ster, Pennsylvania
* In Joliet (JOE-LEE-ETTE), Illinois, it is illegal to even pronounce the name of the city wrong. It may help to remember that there is a '''Romeo'''ville nearby.
* Culross in Fife, Scotland is pronounced incorrectly as cull-ross even by people living only about a mile away. It's actually pronounced Coo-riss.
* In Baltimore, MD, USA (pronounced "BAWL-mer, hon"), there's a street called Thames Street. Begins like "thanks", ends like "games".
* There is a (small) town in Texas called Mexia. It's proper pronunciation? muh-HAY-uh.
** Another small town in Texas (between Waco and Dallas) is spelled Italy but pronounced IT-LEE. There's also Nevada (east of Dallas), and it's pronounced NUH-VAY-DUH.
* Basketball players who have names of Senegalese origin often have their names mispronounced by broadcasters. Prime examples include the brothers Makhatar and Mamadou N'Diaye, as well as French-born Boris Diaw. In the case of Diaw, it sounds like "Jyow". N'Diaye works much the same, with the 'n' not being silent.
** There's also the aforementioned [=DeSagana=] Diop, in which the "De" is silent.
* This troper grew up a block away from a church called St. Raphael's. The ENTIRE WORLD pronounces that name "Rah-fay-el" or "Ray-fee-ul", but not us. We call it "Ray-feel" for absolutely no reason I have been able to uncover.
* "Beaulieu" is pronounced "Bewly" in England and "Bolio" in New England and most of English Canada (it's a common French-Canadian surname).
* The myriad ways that "pecan" is pronounced. Pe-KAHN, Pe-CAN, PEE-ken, PEE-can...gah!
* And let's not forget the "Appalachian" mountain range, which is pronounced various different ways depending on where one is. Most people say "Ap-uh-LAY-chin," but in the Virginia section the locals (such as this troper) call it "Ap-uh-LA-chin" (LA as in "cab"). This troper has also heard people refer to them as the "Ap-uh-LAY-shun" mountains.
** This troper, who lives relatively close to the Appalachian Mts can verify that the majority of people she knows pronounces it "APP-uh-LAY-shen*.
* Arkansas City, Kansas and the Arkansas River are pronounced as "AR-kæn-zəs" not "AR-kən-saw", within the Sunflower State.
** Although this Kansas troper has very rarely, if ever, heard anyone in conversation refer to "Ark City" by its full name
* Amherst, MA is pronounced "AM-erst", without the H; confusingly, it's the only Amherst in the US to use that pronunciation. Amherst College, being named after the town, is not supposed to be called AmHERST.
* Natives of Havre de Grace, Maryland, use an aggressively American pronunciation: Haver (as in, "Have 'er") dee Grayss.
* Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard had a lifelong annoyance with people pronouncing his last name incorrectly, as his family had always stressed the second syllable, for "Griz-ZARD". He wrote in one book that he had run into about a million people who reversed this, saying in a stand-up routine that "Some people have the audacity to ruin my name, and call me 'GRIZ-erd'."
* I always get annoyed when people think “foyer” is fancy French and pronounce it “fo-YAAY” when it’s really just “foy-er.” Then there are worse examples where you take something that is already pronounced fancily and try to make it fancier: “memoir” (which is really “mem-wahrr”) becomes “mem-WAAH,” or “coup de grace” (“coo de grahss”) becomes “coup de GRAAA” (like “Mardi Gras”). [[GrammarNazi Don’t even get me started]] on the pretentious, pestilent mutation that is “process-EEZ,” or “an historical”... argh...
** So you want to shove your version of American pronunciation down everyone's throats? Because in Canadian English, "fo-yerr" is an incorrect (and rather hick-sounding) pronunciation, but it's still not as bad as preceding "historical" with an "a" instead of the ''always correct'' article, "an".
*** This Canadian Troper was honestly unaware there was an English pronunciation other than "Fo-yaay".
**** Hehe, "[[FoeYay Fo-yaay]]".
** This troper is from the Midwest and still thinks "fo-yer" sounds redneck. I still pronounce it that way to avoid sounding pretentious to the rednecks. From Merriam-Webster: Pronunciation: \ˈfoi(-ə)r, ˈfoi-ˌ(y)ā also ˈfwä-ˌyā\ ... Etymology: [[{{SoYeah}} French]]
** Australians tend to pronounce 'h's at the start of words, so 'a historical' is grammatically correct [[LandDownUnder down here]].
* Caribbean, anyone? This troper had no idea there was any pronunciation other than "carry-BEE-an" until he heard Americans calling it the "cah-RIB-ee-an".
** Setting up the {{Mondegreen}} in Billy Ocean's "[[strike:Caribou]] Caribbean Queen"...
* Nebraska is home to the towns of Beatrice, pronounced 'bee-AT-riss', Kearney, pronounced 'CAR-nee', and Plattsmouth, pronounced 'PLATS-muth'. Norfolk, on the other hand, is called 'NOR-fork' by most of the state and 'NOR-fek' by the inhabitants.
* Scotland has plenty. The city of Kircudbright is pronounced Kur-COO-bree. The island of Eigg is pronounced Egg. The village of Ecclesiamacgirdle is pronounced EX-ma-girdle. Curiously enough, Culloden, which most people pronounce counter-intuitively with a short O, is locally given the long O that one would expect from the spelling. (Maybe the short O is to rhyme with Flodden, since both were disastrous battles where the House of Stewart got a kicking.) Oh, and there's Scone, of course. It was bad enough having to learn to distinguish between the town ("Scoon") and the food ("sconn") growing up, before I came to England and found that everybody pronounced them both "scohn". And while I'm on the subject, Dunsinane: even Shakespeare's inconsistent on this one. The line "...till great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill do come..." scans best if delivered with the pronunciation "dun-SIN-un", which is indeed the modern local form: but later Macbeth refuses to "be afraid of death or bane / Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane" - which means that everybody outside Scotland thinks it's pronounced "dun-sin-ANE". Some actors go for a sort of compromise and say "DUN-sin-ane".
* Some people insist on pronouncing crèche "cray-sh", rather than "cresh", in deference to the accent mark on the "e" which us lowly uneducated plebs naturally don't comprehend. That's a ''grave'' accent, not an ''acute'', so it's pronounced "cresh".
*A couple in Michigan. Charlotte is "SHAR-lott", Milan is "MY-lun". Also, most natives pronounce Detroit "duh-TROIT" while most non-natives say "DEE-troit".
* Martinez, Georgia, linguistically, should be pronounced "Mar-TEE-nez". However, the locals refer to it as "Mar-tuh-NEZZ".
* Yonge Street in Toronto. Typically pronounced as "Young" street but (allegedly) there is was originally some crazy British pronunciation.
**Also, this troper's heard many a Canadian say "Ta-ranna" for Toronto. Or just "Chronno", with a "ch" like "chair". And from out west: locals call it "Cal-gree", not "Cal-gary."
* A running gag on b3ta has dumb American tourists ask where Loughborough is and pronouncing it "Loogah-baroogah".
* The state of Hawaii is pronounced "Havai-i" by Hawaiians (Havaiians?).
* Will Friedle's last name is professionally pronounced as "free-DEL," a pronunciation ''never'' associated with that spelling except it his case.
* In Iowa, north of Des Moines (pronounced 'duh moin'), there are two small towns near Iowa State University: Buena Vista (pronounced 'byoo-nuh vistuh') and Nevada (pronounced 'nuh-VAY-duh').
* Oxford and Cambridge University, England's oldest and most esteemed universities, contain constituent colleges named Magdalen College and Magdalene College respectively. Both are pronounced "MAWD-lin". Cambridge also has a college named "Gonville and Caius" - the "Caius" is pronounced "Keys", and was actually spelled that way in the name of its founder, John Keys; the spelling, but not the pronunciation, was Latinised for the sake of it.
* And "Cambridge" is pronounced CAME-bridge, not CAM-bridge.
* Wales is another minefield of this trope, depending on the town or city you're going to. Apparently, in the Welsh language, 'll' has some sort of phlegm-gargling 'chk' sound before the L sound, dd is a 'th' sound (as in 'within'). Trying to pronounce Llandudno, Llangollen or Caerdydd as you would expect from their spelling leads to reproving glances from the natives. Apparently they should be pronounced 'chklan-DID-no', 'chklan-gockh-LEN' and 'Care-dyth' respectively. Caerdydd does have an English-friendly alternative name of 'Cardiff', but if you pronounce anything written in Welsh as you see it, you get shot an evil glare from any Welshman who hears you.
* This troper knows a couple of place names in northern Germany, that use spelling rules so outdated, that they could be called archaic, and only the locals who have been born there know how to pronounce them correctly. In modern Standard German almost every letter is pronouced with only very few cases where a letter indicates unusual pronounciation of a sylable instead. It's practically impossible for non-locals to know that "Itzehoe" is pronounced with a long O at the end. Even most residents think that "Lübeck" is pronounced with a shorter than usual E (as indicated by the "ck" instead of the common "k"), but it's actually pronounced with a longer than usual E (indicated by the "ec", which almost nobdy knows exist).
* There is no such state as "Road Eyeland." Rhode Island is properly pronounced "Rh'DYE lin," while a native is a "Rh'DYE lindah."
** Pawtucket is supposed to be said "P'tukkeh," with glottal stops in the middle and at the end. It should NOT rhyme with the phrase, "Awe, fuck it!"
** On the other hand, east of Manhattan is Lawn Guyland.
* Australian examples (where everything gets reduced to two syllables if possible):
** Brisbane - BRIZ-bin
** Melbourne - MEL-bin
** Canberra - CAN-bra usually
** Aussie - with "ozz" sound not "oss" sound.
** Emu - EEM-yu not EE-MOO, for the love of God people, seriously.
* The New York City area known as Far Rockaway is generally shortened to something like "Frockaway".
* Steve Buscemi pronounces his surname "boo-sem-ee." Most people pronounce it with a "sh" sound in there somewhere, which makes my skin turn to glass.
* This troper once read the tale of a hapless nurse at a pediatrician's office who encountered a young boy who had been christened Shithead. She learned the hard way (after young Shithead's mom got hollering mad at her) that it was pronounced shay-THEED.
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''By the way, it's pronounced "Trope" in French too: the "e" is silent.''