Well, I can't bring myself to keep making the same error over and over when I know it's wrong. So I'm stuck with pronouncing it correctly even if nobody else I know does.
I should never have said anything about pronunciation. Every scientist I've ever seen in the last five years in a documentary about early humans incorrectly pronounces "bipedal" with a long "e." At first I was confused. I actually thought it was a different word from "bipedal" with a short "e," and maybe that it had a different spelling. Thought it had some arcane scientific meaning that I was not privy to. Then I looked it up. Nope. It's clearly the same word; they're all just saying it wrong.
I remember someone who kept saying "seg-yew," and I could not for the life of me figure out what he meant. I was about to ask him when it dawned on me: segue.
The list goes on.
And people say things like, "What difference does it make how I pronounce it? You know what I mean?" Uh, no, I don't. Not always.
All of which is nicely off topic...
