I have to raise a hand at the idea of deliberate mispronounciation being funny, especially within families. Perhaps its because MY Dad did it when I was a child....?

He would pretend to mix up the words Recipe and Receipt. Which I do now sometimes, then realise the humour in childhood jokes doesn't survive an explanation to work colleagues :neutral:

Don't know about that, but I occasionally have a brain malfunction and use totally the wrong word - like when I referred to the earth's continents resting on teutonic plates (I think those are the ones made by Meissen or Villeroy and Boch!)

That reminds me of my favorite scene from "Revenge of the Pink Panther".

http://www.cellar.org/images/smilies/lol.gif

My favorite was always "The organ grinder and his minkee."

I always called those brain farts... or brain fade if it happens over a period of time.

I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, shortly after he'd had a stroke, and about a week before he suddenly passed away. We were talking about our favorite pastries and he was waxing elephant about these hot cross buns which "were filled with ravens..."

It made perfect sense to me. At a distance ravens look like raisins, especially if there is snow on the ground.

I was sad however to remember that was my last conversation with him, but happy that it was about pastires, something we both loved and connected over. But then sad again that we didn't make the chance to sit down and eat some raven infested buns. But then happy, well you get the idea.

"Do you 'ave a lee–zahnce for zat minkee?"

I just heard another one just now that I had forgotton about.

Expresso.

It's Espresso folks. There's no X in there.

Let's talk about ASTERIX, *** the symbol and not the comic strip. We usually hear ASTERISK. I'm not really sure which is correct anymore, but no matter which version I use, the momster will jump at me to say it is the opposite one. Along the same line there is TAMERISK, the saltcedar tree which I remember so fondly from rafting on the Southwestern rivers. Everybody wants to call it TAMERIX. Using X's seems to be a problem for Americans.

Since unix, I've just called it "star".

Tamarisk.

They're so pretty in the fall, but a pest in the west.

Wolf, thank you for clearing up something which has always puzzled me, namely why my sister named one of her cats Minkee. Until now I never knew. Her husband is a Brit :o

Ok here's something else...... it's not a mispronouncement per se, but it's still irritating.

It drives me nuts when people feel this need to pronounce a particular word with a different accent.

Ms white bread suddenly becomes Italian when she says the word risotto, or becomes Greek when she says feta cheese.

It's like they think it makes them sound smarter or more worldly, when in fact it makes me cringe and think "what a dork". It seems that women do it more than men - especially the trilling of the letter r in words.

I see it all the time on the cooking shows.

and NPR. Of course they never say Carnegie with a proper Scottish brogue.

Cunning linguists? (mispronounced?)