The Niche Argument

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Jon

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Jun 21, 2006
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I need someone to confirm this never ending debate on how to pronounce the word 'niche'.

Is it --

nee-sh

or

nitch

???
 


Either one is correct.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/niche
Listen to the sound clips.

I say nitch because that's how I've always herd it said... and "neeeeeeeesh" just sounds
ghey.gif
 
According to Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=niche&x=0&y=0

"Niche" is a French word. It was created by the French and pronounced "Neesh". Now, since there is no "t" in that word that I can see, pronouncing it "nitch" would be quite silly and not how the word was intended to be pronounced. Now, I understand how many people from the U.S. have a hard time with anything French, but we shouldn't confuse pronounciation and English phoenetics. Bottom line: there's no "t" in "Niche" and "ch" doesn't sound like "tch", it sounds like "ch" (a subtle difference, but differnt nonetheless).

Why do I care? Good question...I don't think I do...:)
 
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