How should you pronounce ‘mayoral’? 

The Prime Minister mentioned mayoral elections the other day and he pronounced them as though they were conducted by mouth in the month of May: May-oral. There is no doubt that this is an American pronunciation, though some Americans prefer MAY-uhr-uhl to may-OR-uhl. In British English it’s MAIR-uhl.

The funny pronunciation has spread to electoral, which on both sides of the Atlantic was uh-LECK-tuh-ruhl. Now broadcasters sometimes say uh-leck-TOR-ruhl. It is as if the word were somehow difficult to pronounce and might be easier if it was more like the word tutorial. Unless everyone pulls themselves together, which is unlikely, it will be impossible to resist the slide.

No one can tell such words’ pronunciation merely from their spelling. I have never bought an Oreo, a biscuit first produced in New York in 1912. I don’t like Bourbon biscuits and Oreos don’t look any better. But I’ve never known how to pronounce Oreo.