I said... um... uh...

 Today I ran into a link on mispronounced words.  Apparently the writer of the article (featured on USA Today) used the tactic of looking up the requests for pronunciation that were requested online the most.  Of their top 15 most mispronounced words:

- 7 I knew for sure.  Another I knew once I knew they meant the gyro SANDWICH, and not the gyro-SCOPE.

-3 I was mispronouncing- because EVRYBODY says it the other way. Sorry, but GIF is an animated picture, JIF is a peanut butter.

-3 of them I never heard of before, and long odds say I would have messed them up if I did.

- and the one I will admit I had wrong with no defense- whow woulda thought acai was pronounced "ah-sigh-EE"?

Here is the list, with proper pronunciations:

Worcestershire sauce − WUUS-ter-sheer saws

Gyro − YEE-roh

Dachshund − DAKS-hund

Niche − NEESH

Porsche − POR-shuh

Qatar − kuh-TAR

Gif − JIF

Curacao − KYUR-uh-sow

Saoirse − SEER-shuh

Pho − FUH

Salmon − SAM-un

Nguyen − WIN

Aoife − EE-fuh

Acai − ah-sigh-EE

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious − soo-per-kal-ih-FRAJ-ih-lis-tik-ek-spee-al-ih-DOH-shus

I really have a hard time believing that anyone who's even seen that last one can't pronounce it.  That's kind of the point.

The article went on to list the most mispronounced word in each state.  Here's where it really got baffling for me:

-Not surprisingly, 12 had words that were on the list.  Many times, that one was dachshund.

- 5 times, it was that state's name.

-7 times, it was a city in that state.

-3 times, it was Iran; twice each it was "data" and "water" .  WATER?

-Once it was a rock star (Hozier).

-And there were three I had to shake my head and say, how the heck did you get there from here?:

Montana − Xochitl (SOH-cheel)- an Aztec girl's name meaning 'flower'.  Why do they care in Montana?  Xóchitl Cocina & Tequila, a modern Mexican restaurant located in Great Falls, Montana.

Tennessee − Sevierville (sev-uh-VEER-ul)- which is actually an 8th "city in that state", sounds like severe-full.

Wisconsin − Paczki (POONCH-kee)-apparently a Polish yeast donut.

Finally, I was intrigued by the IQ implications of the mispronounced words in the states surrounding my beloved Indiana...

Indiana- Gyro... I can kinda get that.  But...

Michigan- gauche.  Again, I can kinda get...

Ohio- Spaghetti. Seriously?

Kentucky- Louisville.  Now I get that out of staters might question it, but I thought it was an executable offense in state to not know "LOO-uh-vul".

Illinois- CHICAGO.  CHI. CAG. O. Over a fifth of the population of the state live in a city that they cannot pronounce.

And just to shame all the rest, here are the complete lists of states residents can't pronounce, and cities they can't pronounce:

States

Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon

Cities

Juneau (Alaska), Chicago (Illinois), Louisville (Kentucky), Bangor (Maine), Raliegh (North Carolina), Sevierville (Tennessee), Montpelier (Vermont).