That's not how it's supposed to be pronounced, that's how Americans bastardized the word. Just because you've done something wrong for long enough that it's become the norm doesn't make it right.
Oddly enough, it's a French word, so of course it sounds French.
Of course it makes sense, because that's how it's supposed to be said. I could be wrong, but I don't think you would ever hear anyone from outside the US say "nitch".
You understand that the "English" (you know, the people that invented the language, not Americans) say "neesh"? And that only someone whose native language isn't English that was educated in the US would pronounce it incorrectly?
It retains "kind of a French spelling"? (sigh) Are you sure you studied foreign languages?
You mean you don't say quesadill-la, or tortill-la (actually, I know some Americans, Canadians and Brits that do, but let's not focus on the dumb ones for a minute)? You respect the Mexican origins of those words, and pronounce them correctly, but can't respect the French origins of niche? What is wrong with you?
How do you say "bitch"? "Witch"? "Switch"? "Ditch"?
Now how do you say "quiche"? You don't say "kitch" do you?
How about "microfiche"? You don't say "microfitch" do you?
How about "cliche"? You don't say "clitch" do you?
So why the fuck do you have such a hard time with niche? "itch" and "iche" are not the same.
That's f'kin fantastic.
Not for me:
And if you click the little speaker next to the word you can hear it pronounced "nitch".
Don't be obtuse, scroll down a little bit to see both pronunciations.
Look at every other authoritative English dictionary (Oxford, Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster, etc.) and they all have both pronunciations. Proper English dictionaries usually have "neesh" first, while American English dictionaries have "nitch" first.
