My pronunciation is OK, but my spelling is pretty atrocious, especially for someone who works with words all day. Still, Greek names? Like Iphegenia or Persephone or Aeschyllus? I am fairly sure I can neither speak nor spell them.

My BiL is really into Taoism, which he pronounces T aoism. I tried to convince him he was wrong, but finally gave up. Perhaps I'm the one who is wrong? Isn't it pronounced D aoism? At least, that's what my high school religions teacher taught me.

Our speech teacher in 9th grade (Mrs. Mullens who had taught my mother, all of my aunts, my grandmother and all of my great-aunts!) corrected my friend when she pronounced her last name. "It's huhWIPPLE not Wipple!"

I had a teacher in high school that busted me for saying "git" instead of "get."

Oooh, I think I say "git" a lot, too. I sound like the hillbilly I am. Henry Higgins would have an embolism from my pronunciation.

And this veers into the caught/cot thing -- I cannot make my mouth/vocal cords do *anything* to make those words sound remotely different.

Ftr, I have since learned that they are pronounced "mam-ett" and "en-coe-ate", respectively. Tep, it would be all right for you to do that here...Arizona is apparently really slack on enunciating all those syllables.(Ha...just thought of Bobby Hill wondering if the way Carl Reiner talked is an "Arizona thing," He says "Arizona, Palm Beach, Miami...")(Which I'm probably gonna get worse about without Special Comments to keep me all class-conscious and shit.)ETA: Sometimes I wish there was something about the way we talk that would make people say "Phoenix, right?" But then I think about the whole national embarrassment thing? And thank God there is not. Well, at least not till our schools stop in the sixth grade and people who don't watch the Simpsons actually use "Embiggens"

Burrell - I'm fairly certain it's pronounced as thought the "t" were a "d'. Don't ask me why. . .

And this veers into the caught/cot thing -- I cannot make my mouth/vocal cords do *anything* to make those words sound remotely different.

I am Tep in this regard.

And I still say it "twenny."

Now I realize that I pronounce it more like "twunny" - and what's my justification for that? I have none. Apparently I'm just making up shit in my head.

I also mispronounced a lot of British words but that's their fucking fault. "Gloucester" is Gloster? Fuck you for tricking me on purpose, England! "Worcestshire" is Wurstersheer? WTF?

Wow, I've mispronounced all of the ones mentioned. I'm trying to think of others because I know there are more, but all I've come up with right now are Quay and La Jolla.

Burrell - I'm fairly certain it's pronounced as thought the "t" were a "d'. Don't ask me why. . .

Thank you sumi, not least because that confirms my pronunciation. For completely childish reasons, I don't want Rick T. (my old teacher) to have been wrong. Ever. About anything. (Well OK, he seems to have muffed up his marriage, but marriage is HARD. I forgive him that one.)

My very smart dad used to mispronounce it that way as a kid, and now I can't see the word without pronouncing it MIZE-ld in my head.

I can't believe I thought it conjugated "you misle, he misles." I mean, I never noticed that I'd just never seen it in present tense.

I haven't had teachers busting me for any pronunciations, ever, which is just as well. I wouldn't have taken it very well. I did get hassled for pronouncing "ate" "et" even when the rest of my accent got let slide. I was really relieved and vindicated to find out it's an archaic but valid pronunciation.

Today is just not a good day. Just not.