CLIK/CLEEK & NATIVE SPEAKER [was "FAG one last time"]

[Tony Glaser]

>A similar "in" term is "niche"--as in "niche program."  I've generally
>heard it pronounced "nitch" (a little table stands in a corner niche), but
>recently, with the specialized usage in business and academia, "neesh"
>seems to be preferred (I've even been "corrected" once).  Someone thought
>that everybody must "know" the French pronunciation of words like 'clique',
>but I'm not sure this is true.  "Niche" is by now a common Am Eng word and
>has followed the usual rules of borrowing; I doubt that most people think
>of it as French.

And what about "cache", another word that has emerged from relative
obscurity into wider use with the use of computers (look at your
Netscape or Internet Explorer folder and I'm sure you've got one). To
my mind it is pronounced "cash", but I have heard otherwise educated
people say "cashay", presumably on the theory that it is French and
there's an acute accent which has gone AWOL at the end, or "caysh". I
think the pronunciation with the most cachet has to be "cash".

Tony Glaser