I can't quite understand why people of all types mispronounce words. I have heard that it has to do with fads & to show that one belongs to a certain class of society or group.

For instance: athlete. People of all classes are heard to pronounce it: ath-e-lete. What are they trying to prove? What are you trying to prove, punk? Why do you put that extra clunky letter in?

Are you trying to condense 'Athletic Elite' into one word or wha'?

People aren't learning the words and their pronunciations correctly.

why do most people from the us write rammstien and not rammstein?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_e_except_after_c

I think -stein is only used in American/German names.

It may be for personal amusement. I always enjoy pronouncing capitalist as capittleist when around my friends taking business in university.

With the 'Ath-e-letics", I'm talking of hearing it real/radio/tv.

I don't think it's for the jokings. As people of all classes & levels say it. Pro coaches/ath-e-letes, Olympic ath-e-letes, fans of all ages. People who've got high school & even college under their belts.

Just like it's pretty common to say did not as 'didhn't'.

It seems to me that it's a more recent thing to make the 'n' in didn't so hard that it sounds like they're adding an 'h' in there too. It almost seems that with the pause to harden that syllable?

They may as well say did not as it would be easier & quicker.

I've never heard anybody pronounce athlete like that.

But my friend says Thee-ate-er. I can't stand it.

Another friend has issues with the word "anonymous." But it's kind of cute, because other than that one word he's really smart. And an English major.