Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I only heard it pronounced "nitch," except in French class, for decades. It's just in the last few years that I started to hear "neesh," and thought it pretentious. A fairly recent discussion (on AWWW?) led me to believe that it's a valid pronunciation in English, nothing pretentious (usually) about it. Just one of several, including "nish."

I used to pronounce it "nitch", too.   But five or ten years ago I ran across "neesh".   I don't remember whether I read it in French, or heard an Anglophone pronounce it in the French manner, but whichever it was, I decided that "neesh" is the correct pronunciation and "nitch" should be abandoned along with "nave" (for "naïve"), "CHAFF-er" (for chauffeur) and "swayve" (for suave).   I don't bother to correct "nitch" in others, because I don't think of it as being actually wrong; I just prefer the original pronunciation of the word we borrowed from French.   And yes, "neesh" does seem to be gaining traction, no doubt because I threw my own weight behind it.   You're welcome.

It seems to me that in English—and maybe it's because we borrow so very many words from other languages—we try a little harder to give those words their native pronunciation and also their idiosyncratic plural forms.   We say "cacti" not "cactuses", "seraphim" not "seraphs", "crises" not "crisises".   I admit that the Brits do this less than we do, at least with regard to pronunciation (I still remember flinching incredulously when I heard a BBC reporter signing off from "man-AGG-youah, nicker-AGG-youah"), but still.   So maybe that's why "neesh" is gaining momentum.