Went down to Grand Forks, ND for a night this week, and while I'm aware that there are regional variations in Canada, I'm completely amazed how words can be pronounced completely differently just across the border!
The most notable this trip: Marriott Hotels. Everyone was bent on pronouncing it "Marry-OTT". Normally, the pronunciation of that name kind of fades away at the end to sound kind of like "it", and there they were, STRESSING the end sound and basing the pronunciation on the spelling!
Would the founder of the company really have pronounced his name that way?