The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• Words whose spelling has influenced their pronunciation

  (Pronunciation)
  
  

  
     "Cocaine" used to be pronounced /'coU cA: in/ (3 syllables).
  "Waistcoat" used to be pronounced /'wEskIt/.  "Humble" and "human"
  were borrowed from French with no [h] in their pronunciation.
  "Forte" in the sense "strong point" comes from French _fort_=
  "strong, strong point"; the English spelling is what the OED calls
  an "ignorant" substitution of the feminine form of the adjective
  for the masculine noun.  But even in the French feminine form
  _forte_, the "e" is not pronounced.
  
     "Zoo" is an abbreviation of "zoological garden".  The (popular
  but stigmatized) pronunciation of "zoological" as /zu:@'lA.dZIk@l/
  (as opposed to /zoU@'lA.dZIk@l/) is due to the influence of "zoo".
  
     "Elephant" was "olifaunt" in Middle English, but its spelling was
  restored to reflect the Latin "elephantus".  Similarly, "crocodile"
  was "cokedrill".
  
     "Golf" is Scots.  The traditional Scots pronunciation is /gof/.
  "Ralph" was traditionally pronounced /reIf/ in Britain -- Gilbert
  and Sullivan rhymed it with "waif" in _H.M.S. Pinafore_; that's how
  the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams pronounced his name; and even
  today actor Ralph Fiennes (of _Schindler's List_ fame) is said to
  pronounce his name /reIf faInz/.
  
     "Medicine" and "regiment" were two-syllable words in the 19th
  century:  /'mEdsIn/ and /'rEdZm@nt/.  /'mEdsIn/ can still be heard
  in RP.  In 19th-century England, "university" was pronounced
  /,ju:nIv'A:sItI/ and "laundry" was pronounced /'lA:ndrI/.
  
     King Arthur would have pronounced his name /'artur/.  The h's in
  "Arthur" (now universally reflected in the pronunciation) and
  "Anthony" (reflected in the U.S. pronunciation) were added in the
  15th century -- ornamentally or, in the case of "Anthony", because
  of a false connection with Greek _anthos_="flower".
  
     The new pronunciations in such cases are called "spelling
  pronunciations".  The "speak-as-you-spell movement" is described in
  the MEU2 article on "pronunciation".
  

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Pronunciation: Words whose spelling has influenced their pronunciation', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 1254), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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