Spelling pronunciation

A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling, different from a standard or traditional pronunciation. Words spelled with silent letters (e.g. "island", "knife"), or traditionally pronounced with reduced vowels or omitted consonants (e.g. "cupboard", "Worcester"), may be subject to a spelling pronunciation.
If a word's spelling was standardized prior to sound changes that produced its "traditional" pronunciation, a spelling pronunciation may reflect an even older pronunciation. This is often the case with compound words (e.g. "waistcoat", "cupboard", "forehead"). It is also the case for many words with silent letters (e.g. "often"), though not all—silent letters are sometimes added for etymological reasons, to reflect a word's spelling in its language of origin (e.g. "victual", rhyming with "little" but derived from Late Latin "victualia"). Some silent letters were added on the basis of erroneous etymologies, as in the cases of the words "island" and "scythe".
Spelling pronunciations are often prescriptively discouraged and perceived as incorrect next to the traditionally accepted, and usually more widespread, pronunciation. If a spelling pronunciation persists and becomes more common, it may eventually join the existing form as a standard variant (for example "waistcoat" and "often"), or even become the dominant pronunciation (as with "forehead" and "falcon").
Prevalence and causes.
A large number of easily noticeable spelling pronunciations occurs only in languages such as French and English in which spelling tends to not indicate the current pronunciation. Because all languages have at least some words which are not spelled as pronounced, even those such as Finnish with most words being written phonetically, spelling pronunciations can arise in any language in which most people obtain only enough education to learn how to read and write but not enough to understand when the spelling fails to indicate the modern pronunciation. In other words, when many people do not clearly understand the relationship between spelling and pronunciation, spelling pronunciations are common.
On the other hand, spelling pronunciations are also evidence of the reciprocal effects of spoken and written language on each other. Many spellings represent older forms and corresponding older pronunciations. Some spellings, however, are not etymologically correct.
Speakers of a language often privilege the spelling of words over common pronunciation, leading to a preference for, or prestige of, spelling pronunciation, with the written language affecting and changing the spoken language. Pronunciations may then arise that are similar to older pronunciations or even be completely new pronunciations that are suggested by the spelling but had never occurred before.
Opinions.
Spelling pronunciations give rise to varied opinions. Often, those who retain the old pronunciation consider the spelling pronunciation to be a mark of ignorance or insecurity. Those who use a spelling pronunciation may not be aware that it is one and consider the historically-authentic version to be slovenly since it "slurs over" a letter. Conversely, the users of some innovative pronunciations such as "Febuary" (for "February") may regard the historically- and phonetically-authentic version to be a pedantic spelling pronunciation.
Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933) reports that, in his day, there was a conscious movement among schoolteachers and others encouraging people to abandon anomalous traditional pronunciations and to "speak as you spell". According to major scholars of early modern English (Dobson, Wyld et al.), in the 17th century, there was already beginning an "intellectual" trend in England to "pronounce as you spell". That presupposes a standard spelling system, which was only beginning to form at the time.
Similarly, quite a large number of "corrections" slowly spread from scholars to the general public in France, starting several centuries ago.
A different variety of spelling pronunciations are phonetic adaptations, pronunciations of the written form of foreign words within the frame of the phonemic system of the language that accepts them: an example of this process is "garage" ( in French) sometimes pronounced in English. Such adaptations are quite natural and often preferred by speech-conscious and careful speakers.
Children and foreigners.
Children who read a great deal often have spelling pronunciations because, if they do not consult a dictionary, they have only the spelling to indicate the pronunciation of words that are uncommon in the spoken language. Well-read second language learners may also have spelling pronunciations.
In some instances, a population in a formerly non-English-speaking area may retain such second language markers in the now native-English speaking population. For example, Scottish Standard English is replete with "second language" markers from when Scots started to be subsumed by English in the 17th century.
However, since there are many words that one reads far more often than one hears, adult native-language speakers also succumb. In such circumstances, the "spelling pronunciation" may well become more comprehensible than the other. That, in turn, leads to the language evolution mentioned above. What is a spelling pronunciation in one generation can become the standard pronunciation in the next.
In other languages.
In French, the modern pronunciation of the 16th-century French author Montaigne as , rather than the contemporary , is a spelling pronunciation.
When English "club" was first borrowed into French, the approved pronunciation was , as being a reasonable approximation of the English. The standard then became on the basis of the spelling, and later, in Europe, , deemed closer to the English original. The standard pronunciation in Quebec French remains . Similarly, "shampooing" "product for washing the hair" at the time of borrowing was but it is now 
In Modern Hebrew, the word חֵטְא (, meaning 'sin') is sometimes pronounced , as suggested by its spelling, especially by children. Other examples of spelling pronunciations are the Sephardic Hebrew כָּל (, meaning all) being pronounced as and צָהֳרַיִם (, meaning noon) being pronounced as because of how the kamatz katan vowel point (אָ), which indicates , is visually identical to the kamatz, which indicates .
In Italian, a few early English loanwords are pronounced according to Italian spelling rules such as "water" ('toilet bowl', from English "water (closet)"), pronounced , and "tramway", pronounced . The Italian word "ovest" ('west') comes from a spelling pronunciation of French "ouest" (which, in turn, is a phonetic transcription of English "west"); that particular instance of spelling pronunciation must have occurred before the 16th century, when the letters u and v were still indistinct.
A few foreign proper names are normally pronounced according to the pronunciation of the original language (or a close approximation of it), but they retain an older spelling pronunciation when they are used as parts of Italian street names. For exame, the name of Edward Jenner retains its usual English pronunciation in most contexts, but "Viale Edoardo Jenner" (a main street in Milan) is pronounced . The use of such old-fashioned spelling pronunciations was probably encouraged by the custom of translating given names when streets were named after foreign people: "Edoardo" for "Edward", or "Giorgio" for "George" for "Via Giorgio Washington."
In Spanish, the "ch" in some German words is pronounced or ,instead of . Bach is pronounced , and Kuchen is , but Rorschach is , rather than , Mach is or , and Kirchner is or . Other spelling pronunciations are club pronounced , iceberg pronounced in Spain (in the Americas, it is pronounced ), and "folclor" and "folclore" as translations of folklore, pronounced and . Also in Spanish, the acute accent in the French word "élite" is taken as a Spanish stress mark, and the word is pronounced .
When Slavic languages like Polish or Czech borrow words from English with their spelling preserved, the pronunciation tends to follow the rules of Polish. Words such as "marketing" are pronounced as spelled, instead of the more faithful "markytyng".
In Vietnamese, initial "v" is often pronounced like a "y" () in the central and southern varieties. However, in formal speech, speakers often revert to the spelling pronunciation, which is increasingly being used in casual speech as well.