There are some pronunciations that are really tickling me here largely because I can't accept that there is another way of pronouncing English words. They're ENGLISH WORDS. All I think is, you're saying them wrong. It's OK, we forgive you, just put the 'H' back at the beginning of 'erb' and all will be forgiven. Like, I don't drink regular tea but resent having to go into a coffee house and say "'erbal tea". A barista actually asked me to repeat myself when I said 'Hhhherbal' like she didn't understand me.
So here are some other crazy, change-the-pronunciation-for-the-sake-it words I've heard so far.
1. buzz-ahl-mic - balsamic. - They have a way of trying to make food sound more exotic than it is.
2. Noo-tell-a - Nutella - See above. Nooo-tella. They're saying it like it's some fine delicacy created by Swiss chocolatiers.
3. Raowt - Route - well, we all know this one. I'm sticking with our pronunciation and if they don't like it, they can literally get lost.
4. Vers-a-dal - Versatile - This one has a charm to it. I don't mind it and actually, it's one of the idiosyncrasies I have to understand if I'm to perfect the American accent.
5. Parm-ah-jarn - Parmesan - Another attempt to make the foreign sound special.... When I think of it, they had loads of Italians migrate here back in the day and they must have told Americans how to pronounce it so... perhaps it's Brits who say it wrong. OK, they can have that one.
6. Mah-cheese-mo - Machismo - I nearly spat my drink out laughing when I heard this one. You think a person sounds more manly when you say it like this?! It sounds like a kid's menu burger. "And for our little diners, the Mah-cheese-mo. Comes with the Mah-cheese-man free toy!"
I'm sure I'll discover more of these the longer I stay, but what would actually be even weirder is if I stopped noticing them. Then I'll have been here to daaaaamn loooong.
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