How do you say "FEBRUARY"?

As it turned out, I ended up having the flat all to myself for a few hours on Friday of last week (the day after I posted all that crap about not having time to record videos as no one in my flat knows about my weird obsession with YouTube...).

Basically, as a former Linguistics student, stuff to do with language interests me and I get a strange kick out of friends using me as a source of authoritative knowledge simply because I have a degree. But obviously, there's loads of stuff that I simply don't know or don't understand and in some cases, I get 100% wrong (oops).

"February" is just one of those words that I can live without. Having a slight Scottish accent means I tend to roll my Rs which, in the case of February, results in my sounding ridiculous. I hear some people drop the first R completely and wind up saying Feb-YOU-a-ry, which in case you're wondering, is due to something called "dissimilation". This basically means that for most of us, saying Fe-bru-a-ry is a pain in the ass and we like to make life easier for ourselves by abandoning that stupid first R. Additionally, February is often listed after January (I'd be concerned if you didn't know this...) and January only has the one R and so, a lot of us end up just sort of splicing the end of January onto February while we're speaking and hope no one notices.

But I'm different. I don't say Fe-bru-a-ry or Feb-YOU-a-ry... I go and make things more complicated by dropping not just that first R but the following U and A so I'm left with the mutant and compressed form Feb--ry. I sometimes do the same with poor old January and squash it into the hideous monster that is Jan--ry. It doesn't end there though! Library? I think you'll find it's pronounced Lib--ry.

The only problem with doing this is that I'm always very aware of how I'm saying it... And when you have an acute awareness of something that should really be an unconscious action, you start to question whether other people do the same, are you the only one, is this even the right way to pronounce this bloody word??

So the very much long overdue video is not only explaining my frustration with the English pronunciation system but also asking for anyone out there who feels like being nice and to let me know How do you say "FEBRUARY"?

To let me know, simply click on the video above which will direct you to my YouTube page and upload your video response to the video with the same name. It's not really important or anything but I think it'll be fun to hear how other people say it and if there's anyone out there who says it the same way as I do. Plus, if there are any other common words out there that you hate saying, let me know!

I'm hoping this will help me through the remaining 3 weeks of February...