Talk:niche

The only standard pronunciation in dictionaries that I've found for "niche" has the word rhyme with "rich." However, over the past few years I have repeatedly heard on radio & television, mostly on news broadcasts such as THE NEWS HOUR & NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT on PBS & on NPR's MORNING EDITION, a pronunciation that rhymes with "quiche." When did this begin & why? 69.144.36.129


 * M-W.com lists both as acceptable pronunciations.  Ortonmc 16:14, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * As with many borrowings, it is pronounced both according to the spelling ("nitch") and the original pronunciation ("neesh"). I certainly grew up saying "nitch", but have heard "neesh" more and more.  I'm not sure whether that's due to change in usage, or change in my exposure.


 * An interesting case is that of Spanish-derived US state names. I've heard "Colorado" pronounced three different ways:


 * Usually with an English short a
 * Sometimes with a Spanish a (but an English r)
 * Occasionaly with an English long a


 * Similarly, "Nevada" may get a short or Spanish a. "Nevada" with a long a refers to the town of Nevada, Missouri.


 * "California" is only given Spanish pronunciation in Spanish.  Simliarly "Florida".


 * Then there's the Arkansas River, pronounced like the state (ARK-an-saw) except in Kansas, where it is pronounced ar-KAN-sas to rhyme with Kansas.


 * -dmh 17:07, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * I'd never heard the "nitch" pronunciation until yesterday, in all my 25 years in Ireland. It was an American using that pronunciation.
 * Prior to yesterday, I'd only ever heard it rhyme with "quiche".
 * Perhaps someone should find out if this is always the case on the European side of the Atlantic.
 * 194.46.180.100 10:13, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't think I've ever heard nitch in the UK either. My guess would be that this pronunciation is an americanisation as it does seem to be an anglicised version of the french (which would be more similiar to quiche) that doesn't appear to occur in the UK or Ireland.

By the way, isn't the first audio sample wrong? The 'i' sounds the same as it does in the second sample but the IPA symbol implies an ee sound (like in quiche).
 * I agree, the first audio sample sounds more like instead of . --Abdull 09:03, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

The OED says that the original pronunciation was "nitch" everywhere, and that "neesh" became predominant in European English during the 20th century.

US pronunciation
Currently the two US pronunciation recordings are with a short i - one as "nitch" (rhyming with "itch") and one as "nish" (rhyming with "fish"). But I've frequently heard Americans pronounce it as "neesh" as well (rhyming with "sheesh"). It would be good to add a third recording with the latter American pronunciation. -2003:CA:8731:F0C7:B16E:187A:490C:1482 21:06, 8 January 2022 (UTC)