I've always pronounced banal "baynal." I just checked on dictionary.com and it can be pronounced several ways. I think that is true with a lot of words.

Yes you are right. Newsreaders who know their job always go though the bulletin first and check how to pronounce the names of people and places. We have a local one who repeatededly talks of Wimpleton,for the tennis venue, and a weather girl who says it will be ' Mitsy in Bisbrane'. Not very professional. I am pretty sure the BBC has a department for correct pronounciation.

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I've always pronounced banal "baynal."

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Well, they sure jumped on me when I did it....

Yes Virginia, there is a Duck Tape. But is it really duct tape? Tape, by the way, that is no longer used for ducts! Just recently I saw a woman who made her wallet totally out of duct tape. Ingenuity! But then I have a whole book on what duct tape can be used for...

Then there are the mispronunciations: Chimbley for chimney, and libary for library.... Uck!

When my niece was 4 or 5, she could not pronounce 'magic'-Her version was: magitch! Pretty funny. She would wisper it over and over, trying to get it right.

I have a friend who, despite being repeatedly corrected, keeps using the word "supposably."

Made me remember another one too. My daughter used to say "Suspifically" instead of "Specifically". Of course once she said it incorrectly she just could not get it right.

'Israel', surprisingly, is commonly mispronounced.

I often hear 'Izreel', 'Izriyel', 'Izrayel' and other similar versions by native English speakers.

The word actually starts with a soft 'Y' sound and the 'S' is soft (often written 'ss' in English words.

So, start with 'Yiss...'

a is simple short a as in hat and 'el' is like ale ( =beer)
If you don't make the slightest glottal stop between the 'a' and the 'e' there will be a 'y' sound there.. doesn't belong.

So.. from the top- Yiss-ra-ale
that was easy wasn't it?
I think it's important to pronounce non-English words the way they're supposed to be pronounced according to the rules of their own language where possible.

In that I agree, but we don't talk about 'Paree' and 'Roma' do we?
I thought of another one, My Gran , master of mispronouncement, called a robe you put on top of your nightie, a ' dressing gownD' ,always. But she , bless her , could never bring herself to say the word 'sex'. It was " members of the opposite ...erm.er...SEC"!!
She also couldn't call anyone 'gay' or anything else for that matter. They were 'hermafrites' . Funny how these things come back to you .

My son used to say mazza-gines for magazines. My youngest daughter says sum-mage instead of massage.

My brother in law grew up in Hawaii and spoke pidgin English. I could not understand that man at all when I first met him. Between his accent, his speaking very fast and expressions that made no sense to me, it was a challenge to have a conversation with him. Sometimes, I would just nod and smile becuase I got behind in trying to puzzle out his words.

"Jalike" means "just like"
"Dis, dat and da utter ting"---This, that and the other thing
"foeva"--forever
"Dass it"--that's it

I knew someone who would say, "It's a doggy dog world," instead of a "dog eat dog world."

I also notice people saying/writing "upmost" instead of "utmost."

And some say "foilage" for "foliage."

You don't talk about 'Paree' and Roma? ::gasp:: ! Just kidding you, Ren:)
(And you have to say it with the right accent too;)

I think it all really depends on whether your audience will understand.
Saying 'Israel' correctly is recognizable.

What about Des Moines? When I hear 'Moyn' I cringe! It's obviously a French name, why isn't everyone pronouncing it 'Mwan?'

Ha! I have to add my two cents on screwed up french. I grew up in northern Colorado and one of the rivers that makes it's route through the area is the Cache le Poudre. Now...it SHOULD be pronounce "Cash le Pooh-dreh" but everyone mangles it horribly. You MIGHT think we'd go all American on it and say "Catch luh Pooder" but no.... that would be too consistent. It's commonly accepted that this river, that's also given it's name to various businesses and even a high school, is pronounced "Cash luh Pooder" or even more affectionately referred to as "The Pooder." I do have to admit a fondness for this--like I said I grew up there knowing it was wrong but did it anyway. It kind of made it more our own river that way.

Also, there is a town between Boulder and Denver called Louisville. Do NOT refer to it as "Loo-ee-ville" for it's residents will sternly remind you that it is called "Loo-iss-ville."

Some words, though, evolve into the primary language in which they are said. Des Moines may be French, but the origin of the name as an American city is just as possibly an anglicized version of a particular tribe that inhabited the area. Not only that, but in midwestern dialect, there's actually very little difference between "dehmwan" and "dehmoyn" as far as sound is concerned. Just be glad you don't more often hear the "s" on the end.

There's a town north of here named Norfolk. Unlike Norfolk, Virginia, which is pronounced more closely to the English way, Norfolk, NE is pronounced Norfork. The story is that when the town was incorporated, they intended to call it Norfork because it is located on the North fork of the Elkhorn river. The US postal service assumed it was a misprint and changed it to Norfolk, but it has been pronounced Norfork ever since.

Maybe Louisville is actually named after an English Lewis, not a French Louis?

My daughter was a champion at mispronouncing words when she was little and they have stuck. A toaster was a toast popter, marmalade was marbeloot and a wheelbarrow was a wirrow barrow.

She went for quite some time substituting f/s and would always ask to watch Big Bird on "Feffa Freet".

I mispronounce the name of my house, deliberately. As it is a Portuguese word (muchaxo)it ought to be muchacho but I consider it too complicated for the locals so use a hard x instead, much-ax-oh. I still have to spell it!

Another of my dear old Gran's:
She used to call me her " Glory da deejer Rose" I realised in later years that she was calling me after a rose, famous at the time " Gloire de Dijon" Ain't that cute?

I only realized that the Nez Pierce or however they spell it were those of the pierced noses after knowing French for a long time. It was pronounced the way I just wrote it rather than the way you'd say it in French.
You also have Tete Plate and other names for American natives from French explorers or trappers.
Lake Huron comes from a word for Hure or boar with a crest as they saw the natives sporting the headdress or hairstyle that looked like the crest of a boar.

While we're on the subject of French in the USA, how does one pronounce the delightfully named Grand Teton and Gros Ventre peaks?

I think the Grand Tea ton with accent on that Tea bit is the first.
short O on the O.

Gros Ventre, not sure.

I used to laugh when going to Butte county as for us little Americans it meant butt. I think most of us say 'beaut' as in Beautiful.

come to think of it, one wonders how come we got to Bew tee full instead of Beau or Bo.

In the New Forest in Hampshire there's a place called Beaulieu. I was amazed to find myself there some time after I'd first seen it as I was told I was being taken to a place called Bewlee, but that's the way it's pronounced: not the Bo Loo I'd talked about but no-one else had seen.

Having lived in Hampshire until I was almost twenty-five I was of course familiar with the correct pronuciation which didn't prepare me for the way they pronounce the name of a girls school here, Beaulieu Convent! Here it is Bow Lure, we also have a Ho Lure - Haulieu.