'Niche', people pronounce it differently.

How do you say it?

[Habtom]

Is it a nitch or n-e-sh? :)

[Habtom]

nitch nitch nitch nitch

lol lawman, everytime I see it, it makes me smile.

[Automan Empire]

Silly people! It is pronounced nietzsche. :)

Edit: Fix tag. While we're at it, its bbcode, not html.

[edited by: Automan_Empire at 3:44 am (utc) on Jan. 4, 2008]

[Marcia]

>>Silly people! It is pronounced nietzsche.

But of course. And these? -? -? are question marx.

And a more sophisticated level of gold-digger is a heidegger.

[edited by: Marcia at 4:02 am (utc) on Jan. 4, 2008]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

niche smilche!

[Hester]

I say neesh.

Also "meter" I say as "meeter".

And "lever" is "leever". Hated that bit in V For Vendetta when the supposedly British guy says "Don't touch that levver!". I guess they aimed it at the American market. A Brit would never say it that way!

[Old_Honky]

It is correctly pronounced "neesh". We British are used to Americans pronunciating (as used by George Bush Jnr.)their words differently eg "missul" instead of "missisle" or "Aloominum" instead of "alumineeum". Twas ever thus.

"Nitch" is a very unrefined way of saying the word, but if it is common usage in the US then fair enough. They can also call a tap a faucet or a crisp a chip for all I care.

What about the biggest English speaking country (by population) India? As they outnumber us perhaps we should all fit in with their pronunciation so that English evolves as a true world language and we don't have the nonsense of American English, Australian English and even "English English"

[httpwebwitch]

The answer to this question really depends on how you pronounce 'Quiche'.

Quiche = "kwitch"

therefore
niche = "nitch"

Q.E.D.

[httpwebwitch]

btw i was kidding

[Old_Honky]

"Quiche"

I thought we would get the old joke about the guy who gets slapped by the waitress when he asks her for a "quckie".

I pronounce it "Keesh" a friend insists it is "Qweesh" it would be safer to call it a "flan".

[Murdoch]

I'm sure us Americans messed up the pronunciation of this word somewhere along the line, like many of those faux French words that are completely misused and/or butchered... e.g. - using forté (pronounced "for-tay") for something we're good at. We're only pretentious when we think it makes us look good, except for moi of course :)

"Change my pitch up, smack my nitch up"

[Marcia]

Then again, there are some people who shop at "Tar-ghay" (no spelling equivalent for the gh pronunciation).

Re India, they got their English from the Brits by reason of occupation... er, colonization (except for updation, which is original to them). On the other hand, we tossed the tea and took the high road by modernization.

We also have regional differences and derivations for words or concepts of Anglo-Saxon origin. When I got to Calif. I couldn't get a Danish served in a restaurant, they'd bring me an English muffin instead. Until I learned that they're called sweet rolls here. Soda, called pop in the midwest, is also tonic (what it's called in New Hampshire). Funniest was a gal in ivillage chat years ago saying she was fixing pecker and corn for dinner? Huh? That's corn and Cornish game hen, but referring to it as they do in her part of the country.

[edited by: Marcia at 10:29 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2008]

[ytswy]

As long as we can all agree that the word herbs has an 'h' at the front we won't have any problems...

[Marcia]

I'm fondue, are you fonda moi?

[vincevincevince]

I suggest the topic should be amended to read: "'Niche', some people pronounce it incorrectly"

[Habtom]

>> 'Niche', some people pronounce it incorrectly

You mean non-British?

[Hester]

"pecan" - how do you pronounce it? To me (British) it is "pee-can" but I've read that some States in America say it "pur-can". :-O

You can't say we should pronounce words as they are spelt either. Because what about place names like Keighley? It is pronounced "Keeth-ley"! Likewise Worcestershire - Brits say "Wustersher".

[phranque]

the english language is very consistent with spelling and pronunciation.
that's why you can write sentences like:
the tough guy coughs as he ploughs the dough!

[HarryM]

The divergence between US English and British English has been going on for centuries. Sometimes the US modernises the spelling, as in "check" for the British "cheque", and sometimes it preserves an older form such as "gotten" where we Brits have corrupted it to "got".

But viva la difference! It's a sad fact that TV and radio have destroyed many of the local dialect words in England.

I b'aint happy about it. Be you?