How do you pronounce superlative?

[SarkyWench]

I think that ds1 has been taught this incorrectly.

1. super-LAY-tiv (to rhyme with "super native")
   or
   
2. soo-PER-li-tiv

[singleWhiteMale]

There's an awful lot of on this thread..

[AViewfromtheFridge]

Did anyone hear Steve Wright pronounce epitome epi-tome not once, but twice this afternoon on radio 2? Surely if you're broadcasting to the nation you should check these things!

[SarkyWench]

Is that meth-inks?

[BOFingTheDude]

I'm not sure which would be more dispiriting: banal sex or anal sex.

[lottiegarbanzo]

Maybe it's you chinley! It's ban-Ahhl, or more like b-nAhhl.

[3b1g]

Chinley: to rhyme with Carl.

[lottiegarbanzo]

I know someone who pronounces banal thus 3b1g!

Also others who've thought that about misled (and ORrey for awry, as above). I think mizzle is fine, misty drizzle is it not?

[bialystockandbloom]

Sorry austenozzy but pmsl at 'bru-sk-etta'

[bialystockandbloom]

Until I was about 18 I thought there was a word mizzled which meant being duped into thinking something erroneous.

Er, oh yes. Pretty similar to the meaning of misled then.

[3b1g]

Until I was about 25, I thought that banal was pronounced in a way that rhymed with anal.

[TalcAndTurnips]

3b1g -

[austenozzy]

*other day

[austenozzy]

I had Dermot O'Leary's radio 2 show on the other while on way to the tip (livin' the life!) and he kept flipping between oh-maaaaaaj and hommidge, he couldn't make his mind up!

[3b1g]

What about montage though? I wouldn't pronounce it montidge.

[austenozzy]

Just remembered another. Homage. No, it's not 'oh-maaaaaj', it's 'hommidge'.

I was told the 'an hotel' thing is a leftover from when Hs were silent in English, but I don't know if that's a folk etymology. See the american pronunciation of 'herbs' as an example of that. Apart from taking unnecessary effort to say 'an hotel', it just sound pretentious and anachronistic.

[austenozzy]

I can sort of understand the turquoise 'turk-wahz' thing, due to it being a french word. Pronunciation guides seem to suggest an 'oise' as in 'noise' sound, though. What's the official line?

[austenozzy]

My wife gets annoyed when I order or even say bruschetta with the correct 'sk' sound in the middle (minus the rolling r, as that would be pompous!). She reckons I sound like a pillock, but I can't bring myself to call it 'brooshetta', so there!

[vamosbebe]

Met a fellow English teacher years ago who pronounced apostrophe as 'apo-STROW-fee', and I've heard turqoise as 'tor-kwars'. I must admit I LOVE playing with the pronunciation of words, especially with DH, and say 'apo-stow-fee' and 'tor-kwars' a lot. We especially love the character in the first season of Scrubs: Dr Beardface who pronounced his name 'beard-fah-say'. We're childish