>
> > Burger"What about 'laboratory'? When does mispronunciation become simple regional variation?"King
>
> Well, if you pronounce it LABratory I think of a modern day science lab.
>
> If you pronounce it labORatory I think of Dr. Frankenstine, Dr. Jeckel, and all those other mad scientist types.
>
> I know one is proably right and the other is wrong, but thats just how my brain works.
>
> Screwy, isn't it?
>
> Speed'those4letterwords,ohthose4letterwordsthat
> neversayquitewhatyoumean'ball

I have the exact same perceptions based upon the respective pronunciation. Without the luxury of a dictionary to look into, I'd tend to believe that both pronunciations are acceptable. It's pretty neat how something so simple as how one says a word can give a very different idea of virtually the same place. I'm sure that there are probably several other such examples which I'm unable to think of at this time. Although when you capitaize polish (a chemical for shining wood), it becomes Polish (pertaining to Poland), and the pronunciation changes, too. Coolerific.

Tra "After polishing off the Polish polish, I felt somewhat pole-ish - ah... pish posh" nio