Shibboleths...

[SckizoBoy]

Unfortunately, the written medium is not the best way of relating this kind of topic, but I'll give it a go anyway.

So, I'm sure wherever you come from you have some local or national shibboleths (i.e. words that the non-locals... or even some of the locals, will not fail to mispronounce, whether to your chagrin or to your amusement).

Famous examples:

Poles getting non-Polish speakers to try to pronounce the place name 'Szczebrzeszyn'...
Germans getting non-German speakers to say 'Streichholzschächtelchen'...
and of course, Danes getting everyone else to say 'rødgrød med fløde'...

And just so English speakers don't feel left out, go for common mispronunciations.

e.g. a lot of people mispronounce a street close to where I live (spelt 'Grosvenor'... no 's' in there... -_- )
Alternatively, anyone not from Cornwall, try saying the place name 'Mousehole' correctly the first time 'round. Worse yet, Beaulieu...

As a chemist, 'Beaulieu's' pronunciation makes it sound like the bloody organilithium!

What about you chap(esse)s?

Oh yeah... and while I remember, Portuguese speakers: how the hell do you pronounce 'João'?!

 

[Xarathox]

I live in the southern end of the States, so it's pretty much a given that half the local population can't pronounce simple words correctly. Examples:

Tire is pronounced as "Tar"

Fire is pronounced as "Far"

There is pronounced as "Thar"

It's ridiculous. Sometimes I feel like the only educated person in the entire region when I'm in public. -.-

 

[Baneat]

I live in the southern end of the States, so it's pretty much a given that half the local population can't pronounce simple words correctly. Examples:

Tire is pronounced as "Tar"

Fire is pronounced as "Far"

There is pronounced as "Thar"

It's ridiculous. Sometimes I feel like the only educated person in the entire region when I'm in public. -.-

There's gold over them thar hills yonder billy

 

[Xarathox]

I live in the southern end of the States, so it's pretty much a given that half the local population can't pronounce simple words correctly. Examples:

Tire is pronounced as "Tar"

Fire is pronounced as "Far"

There is pronounced as "Thar"

It's ridiculous. Sometimes I feel like the only educated person in the entire region when I'm in public. -.-

There's gold over them thar hills yonder billy

Realtree camouflage is practically Gucci here, too.

 

[lechat]

australian and everyone fails to fake the accent. just so you know croc dundee and steve irwin have accents that you would basically never hear in australia

best way to sum up australian pronounciation is with
"how is it going" howzitgoin

 

[JaceArveduin]

Another person from the southern part of the US, and I recently found out there's some town aroundish here called Achille. They pronouce it, more or less, "ah-che-lee"

Oh, and lots of French named towns here too, though it's hit or miss on them. They get Poteau right, but not Bokoshe.

And, for the record, I'm 90% sure I don't use the ar's

 

[DkLnBr]

A street name in Calgary is the only one I know of. People always have a hard time with Shaganappi, even the GPS system in my moms car mispronounces it. Also people dont mispronounce this, but its still fun to have people say Balzac [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzac,_Alberta]

 

[emeraldrafael]

You can always tell someone's not from pittsburgh (or has really worked on not speaking like they are) based on how they pronounce some words, so i always think its funny when i hear. and thats my best example other than when i write yinz and people try to make the I long like in pie. or wen they pronounce it as whinez.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Oh yeah... and while I remember, Portuguese speakers: how the hell do you pronounce 'João'?!

O meu portugues e fraco (My Portuguese is weak) but I'm fairly certain it's pronounced "Zhwoh."

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

This isn't exactly what you meant, but I'm more or less the only person I know who doesn't pronounce the 't' in 'often.' My parents do, my friends do, I'm pretty sure most of my teachers do... It's gotten to the point where I wonder 'why the hell don't I?'

Also: I always thought that the idea that 'cinnamon' is hard to pronounce was just a joke. My housemate never gets it right on her first try, though. It makes me laugh.

 

[saintdane05]

Drizzt Daermon N'a'shezbaernon

Please pronounce taht for me.

 

[the_duke_CC]

I'm Welsh so everyone who wasntt brought up with the Welsh language around them has trouble with place names peoples names it gets old really quickly when you have to say for the tenth time "thats not how you pronounce it"

 

[Gottesstrafe]

I live in Hawaii, so every so often I get tourists asking for directions while tripping over the pronunciation of things like Kalanianaole highway, Liliuokalani avenue, or Ala Moana boulevard.

What really gets to me though is their pronunciation of karaoke. C'mon people, just look at the way it's spelled and sound it out. How the hell does it translate to 'carry-okee' when you speak it, despite being able to write it correctly?

 

[Vegosiux]

Non-Slovenians trying to pronounce my name. Even some Slovenians get my last name wrong, stressing the wrong syllable. Another one is one of our cities, Jesenice, which will more often than not be pronounced as "Jes'-nice" by English speaking people, with the proper being "Ye-se-ni-tse" with the stress being on the i and not on any of those e's.

 

[Tropicaz]

This isn't exactly what you meant, but I'm more or less the only person I know who doesn't pronounce the 't' in 'often.' My parents do, my friends do, I'm pretty sure most of my teachers do... It's gotten to the point where I wonder 'why the hell don't I?'

Also: I always thought that the idea that 'cinnamon' is hard to pronounce was just a joke. My housemate never gets it right on her first try, though. It makes me laugh.

I dont pronounce the f in often, but i'm from the NorthEast of England, so pretty much none of my prnounciations stack up with whats deemed 'correct.'

My favourite word to get German/French people to say in English is Squirrel. My sister's Boyfriend is french and just cannot say it, and AFAIK there is no sound similar the 'qui' bit in German so they struggle to form the sound.

As for your Portuguese word, I've usually ran with the vowels making an Ow sound, like in ouch. Basing this of commentary of a footballer called Joao Perreira, though it's English commentary so could be way off.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Here's a challenge. Try to pronounce this:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Here's how you're supposed to pronounce it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cy-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch_(Welsh_pronunciation,_recorded_17-05-2012).ogg

I'm Welsh so everyone who wasntt brought up with the Welsh language around them has trouble with place names peoples names it gets old really quickly when you have to say for the tenth time "thats not how you pronounce it"

Give it a shot.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

I've been to North Wales. They win.

In my own locale, we have Oswaldtwistle, pronounced Ozzle twizzle, which isn't that hard, it just sounds stupid. There's also Bury, pronounced 'Berry'.

Upon moving to Glasgow, I did get the piss taken the first time I tried to say Sauchiehall street.

 

[NightmareWarden]

My favourite word to get German/French people to say in English is Squirrel. My sister's Boyfriend is french and just cannot say it, and AFAIK there is no sound similar the 'qui' bit in German so they struggle to form the sound.

I'm gonna commit that to memory...
This seems relevant: The quality is poor because I'm to lazy to find better clip. I watched a certain silent movie recently and since quite a bit of the scary looking words in this thread seem alien to me, I'll leave my own line:
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[small]So I'm not feeling very creative right now, sue me why don't ya.[/small]

 

[lacktheknack]

"Nuclear" is pronounced "NOO-cleer".

I'll work with "NOO-clee-ir" if I have to.

But WHY must everyone (including English speakers) pronounce it "NOO-KYOO-lir"?