Don't use a word if you can't pronounce it correctly!

Poor girl

Only a few weeks ago a newspaper had an article about a mother who named her Daughter ABCDE.
She said it was.pronounced Ab,si, dee.

Years ago I came across a child whose name was pronounced See Ann. His mother had seen the name written down and nobody could persuade her of the proper pronunciation of SEAN’s name.?

I find it embarrassing when someone pronounces something wrong, but then I've been pulled up on things myself. As I've not lived in the UK for over 40 years now, sometimes there are words which I really have not heard pronounced and have been known to make a fool of myself. (e.g. "coelecanth")

However, I think it was also on Woman's Hour that I actually heard someone say "Indicktment" - surely that's not such an uncommon word?

Perhaps a bit like the Rik Mayall character, (can't remember the Christian name) B'stard!

One of the firms I worked for when I was a young slip of a thing, I made a faux pas of calling an important client Mr Death, "Dee ath" he bellowed back Not the greatest moniker to be lumbered with

Bottomly = Bummly ????

Oops. Magdalen

Magdelin College - Maudlin?

Oops, should that be "Sinjun" ?

Some surnames can be a minefield when it comes to pronunciation, for example:

St John = Singun

Featherstonehaugh = Fanshaw

Chalmondley = Chumley

X

I remember as a child coming across to me unusual names in my favourite girls’ school stories and for years thought Fo-ebe was a girl’s name

Baggs Your mention of Bellerophon reminded me that the sailors on the ship of that name called it the Billy Ruffian – and what about those who fought at Wipers and other such places in World War I?

Actually, when I read the OP, I thought What's wrong with hyperbowl? Then I realised I was thinking of Super Bowl ?

My dad was always mispronouncing words deliberately and jokily (sp?) at home. I think it was because he was a bad speller and it helped him remember spellings. He always said he'd had to learn by rote every word that he knew how to spell and he would still get my mum, who was a natural speller, to check any important papers (of which there were a lot).

He was a lot of fun, my dad.

I had a friend called Hermione decades before Harry Potter was invented, so I knew how to pronounce it.

My family was very pronunciation-conscious because we had a surname that wasn’t pronounced at all the way it was spelt. I’m not going to divulge it, but regret giving it up when I married. We might say ‘hyperbowl’ as a joke. My Australian MIL always talked about her ‘gaze-bow’, and that was also a joke.

I have a highly educated friend who talks about her ‘poinsi-etta’ every Christmas. I am longing to tell her to read the word more carefully.

As a young child I came across the word ‘decent’ in an Enid Blyton book. (It’s a very Enid Blyton sort of word, come to think of it.) I’d never heard the word, and pronounced it ‘descent’ to myself, but I don’t think I ever said it aloud.

My dad said he cycled past a street called Gipton Appricotch for years before he actually saw that it said Approach.

Who else said veehickle when they first saw it on road signs? ?

I haven't read the whole thread so my answer is to the opening post. If a person has only ever read a word they might not know how to pronounce it.

As a child I mispronounced the names Penelope and Bellerophon (and probably lots else along with all the ones I just skipped over) wrong until I heard them spoken by someone who knew.

Greek words are tricky.

Weobley is pronounced Webly and Leominster Lemster

I still like to say Ill frackomby and El Dora doo. (Ilfracombe and Eldorado) My Grandmother used to do it on purpose for fun.

I was about 10 when I learned from.my younger cousin that the depot was not the dee-pot but the deppo!
I think that correct pronounciation is important if meaning is lost. If, however, communication is still clear..no harm done! I am surprised if it was an announcer / journalist who made the error as clear communication is what their job is!

In class once, I referred to the Marine Corp as the Marine "Corpse". The whole room was full of laughter, and I almost crawled under my chair?

I too have been guilty of saying Pen-a-lope and Her-my-own-ee until I heard others pronounce the names (only ever having read them).

I have notice young people now saying melk instead of milk, but this has been called the Canadian vowel shift by linguists studying language. I haven't really noticed it in other short-I sounds.

And I have always been amazed and astounded at some of the town names in England not being pronounce at all like the spelling.

I always smile to myself when people say they are suffering with their "Arthuritis".

Yikes correct spelling
Eczema! Not my dad's version