I've heard a couple of people pronounce Tanzania as Tan-ZAYNE-eeuh instead of Tan-Zuh-Nee-uh.Tinnitus:
tin-it-iss
tin-EYE-tuss (this is the one I'm familiar with)

Long before Obama came into office there had been a trend to saying hee-ROH-shee-mah.Qatar is still pronounced kah-TAR in diplomatic circles.Qatar Airways flies to a number of US cities and in those airports the announcements over the PA system pronounce it the same way.

Pileated Woodpecker is a word that no one agrees how to pronounce.

I've heard it as Pie-lee-ted.

There is a trend among map makers, diplomats, media... to name locations and pronounce them according to how the residents name it. In Japan it is hee-ROH-shee-mah.Peking .. vs Beijing
Iran vs PersiaIt is about respecting the peoples who reside there and not preserving some colonialist era naming conventions.Cairo (karo) IL vs Cairo Egypt.

@cjsummers :I had to think about that a while to understand what you meant. Doesn't history tell us that all the new settlers in America had English accents? And that the way we speak now is just a result of evolving conversation...I'm still trying to figure out why we don't pronounce the "wed" in Wednesday. And why colonel is pronounced like kernel. And why it's so difficult to understand thick accents, let alone learn a 2nd language, or communicate with "lesser intelligent" animals / insects when they clearly communicate with each other.

@tapeworm :
Thought you might find this interesting:
teachinghistory.org/ history-content/ask- a-historian/22270

I find etymology fascinating.

Reminds me of the couple who was in Punxsutawney and couldn't agree on how to pronounce it so they stopped at a local burger joint and settled it once and for all. They asked the young blond behind the counter to prounce this place slowly and she replied, "Burr-gurr-king." Now back to your post, it would be interesting if someone could compile a list of words that are pronounced two or three ways. I'm sure there are some we have all heard and wondered where they heard it said like that.

You have no further to look that locally. I call it WASH-ington, my wife calls it WARSH-ington...

@Peoriapole My wife will say she is going to WARSH a load of clothes. I keep telling her it takes longer to WARSH them than it does to WASH them....

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Thank goodness is

last week i had surgery. anyone who has had surgery knows you have to talk to every single person in the hospital..haha. anyway i had to talk to the aniste - (the person who knocks you out) -ologists. his accent was so heavy and thick, i had to stare at him just so i could hear him. i asked him if it was German i heard and he said, "yes, German and Polish." my husband swears it was budwieser. LOLps~ his heavy thick accent, Russian.