A friend of mine was saying she thought when younger that AWRY was pronouned AWE RY.
Anither one thought MISLED was MISSLED
And it’s obvious that this comes from our ignoramce of the derivation of words [not to mention the fact that they had nor heard their parents or siblings use these words]
We know a- is a common prefix in words like AMORAL,
And mis is also one as in MISALLIANCE MISSPENT
More tomorrow
How my heart sings 
and I say controVERsy. So, are you nEEther or nYther? Perhaps you could make a list of common variants and then take a poll.
nYther!Yes,there’s a thought!
I think you misunderstood – I was referring to the different pronunciations of ‘controversy’ (accent on 2nd or 3rd syllable)
Another phenomenon is that, apparently, we adjust our accent to be closer to a person we like, when in conversation, and distance ourselves from those we don’t like!
I say conTROVersy.. sorry.I think that os fascinating that we adjust like you say but it makes sense.Correction is something we should avoid in talking because it puts the other at a disadvantage.However criticising my poetry politely or telling people in seminars they have made a mistake in logic etc is ok because they are in a situation where they are learning new things and expected to make mistakes at least now and then
I’ll be interested to see how this thread develops. Like the language itself, pronunciation changes over time. I gather that the experts have analysed Shakespeare and deduced some pronunciations from his use of rhyme and metre; a lot was different from today.
I rather enjoy deliberately mis-pronouncing ‘awry’ just to watch the effect 🙂
You are quite right,Mike.I never correct people if they pronounce words differently.In fact I then imitate them so as to avoid hurting them.Someone else mentioned hearing a radio programme which had two actors with accents etc that would have been used in Shakespeare’s time.It may be on Radio 4 extra which is on Freeview.Yes,it is a very interesting topic.Thank you for commenting
To start a controversy – where do you stand on pronouncing that word?
I used to say AWERY but since I found that was wrong I don’t think I’ve used it!