accent or mispronounciation? (was RE: [thechat] Chile's tennis fighting for the medals)

[Joel D Canfield]

> I want to know why the American commentator pronounces Chile 
> as "chilli" :)

An honest question, not antagonism ('cause I prefer to pronounce it
'cheelay' but not quite): how would someone of average education and
intelligence in your neighborhood pronounce it, Madhu? I've never heard
you speak, so I don't know how close your accent or apparent lack
thereof (from my perspective) matches any of the folks I work with who
are from India.

Does 'chilli' fall under the purview of mispronunciation or accent? Two
minutes ago, I would have said the former, but thinking about the two
dozen folks from all over India and Nepal with whom I work, much of what
I would have considered' mispronunciation' in the past has sidled over
into 'accent.' Some of them speak perfect English, with a mild to medium
British-ness (creating a distinct 'so how come *I* speak no Hindi?'
feeling in me) and others have medium to strong accents which thoroughly
alter the pronounciation of some words.

Should I expect an American sports commentator to pronounce foreign
words better than I expect it from the well-educated engineers I work
with? I've always been fussy about pronouncing other languages (my first
car was a 'ren-OH', second was a 'FOKES-vahggen') which may have been
influenced by half growing up in Tijuana, taking lots of German in high
school (as yet unused) and starting Russian later in life.

joel