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This is a set of lists of English personal and place names having spellings that are counterintuitive to their pronunciation because the spelling does not accord with conventional pronunciation associations. Many of these are degenerations in the pronunciation of names that originated in other languages.
For help converting spelling to pronunciation, see English orthography § Spelling-to-sound correspondences. The words given as examples for two different symbols may sound the same to you. For example, you may pronounce cot and caught , do and dew , or marry and merry the same.
A connoisseur (French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of connaisseur, from Middle-French connoistre, then connaître meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator of cuisines, fine wines, and other gourmet products; or who is an expert judge in matters of taste.
Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many exceptions, but also:
For English words, transcriptions based on English spelling ("pronunciation respellings") such as prə-NUN-see-AY-shən (using {}) may be used, but only in addition to the IPA ({}). Whatever system is used, any transcription should link to an explanation of its symbols, since such symbols are not universally understood.
[a] The expected pronunciation, due to a more well-known name or word with the same spelling, is wrong; or [b] The actual pronunciation would not be a reasonable guess by a speaker familiar with general English spelling patterns but unfamiliar with the name at hand or with similar names (e.g. names in "burgh" or "cester").
For our purposes, we pulled out 50 notable Michigan roads and destinations you might not be saying correctly. Use the database for more pronunciations where you might want clarification.
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary suggests the first pronunciation. Similarly, this pronunciation markup guide will choose the most widely used form. NOTE: This guide is designed to be simple and easy to use. This can only be achieved by giving up scope and freedom from occasional ambiguity.