American pronunciation

Americans usually pronounce their English in a way which resembles English English almost perfectly, with some subtle differences. Here's a brief list.

last refresh 10/26/2008 09:57:01 AM
(enough of this, get me back)

word pronounced as comment
-gn- (in Italian names) -gn- never like "ny" in "new" - that would sound too Italian. I wish I knew how do they pronounce "gnocchi" :)
911 nine one one the telephone number of emergency services, never pronounced as "nine-eleven", because one lady tried to find number eleven on her phone and thus lost precious time
amphitheater ample-theatre also ampy-theatre
bologna baloney the sausage
chianti chi-antie never "kyanti", that would sound too Italian
clothes close  
colonel kernel OK, this is a British thing, from Spanish 'coronello'. Over time, they switched the spelling to Italian/French and pronunciation to Spanish (sort of).
corpus delicti core-puss deh-lec-tee  
E. coli ee-coal-eye  
et cetera excetra  
Eustachian ewe-station  
february febewary  
Fredericksburg frejburg  
harassment harasmnt so nobody would hear "her ass" in it
Helene huh-leen, heh-leen  
karaoke carry-okie  
knesseth kenneseth English language makes one forget how to pronounce kn, gn, pn or ps in the beginning of the word, while being perfectly capable of saying them anywhere else.
library lie-berry  
mobile mowbl, moe-bile Dylan sings "stuck inside a moebeel". Go figure.
Newfoundland nooflan  
Nobel nowbl  
nuclear nucular  
personality person-ul-uh-tee  
product produk  
status quo staytus cow  
staunton stanton  
temperature temp-a-chur  
tracheotomy tricky-otomy