What's so hard about pronouncing "inauguration?"

in-au-gu-ra-tion

Those of us who are accustomed to pronouncing English words properly know it's pronounced in-aw-gyh-rey-shun.

But a startlingly large number of people on TV think it's pronounced in-og-ur-a-shun.

The first example of this moronic butchery of the word cropped up shortly after the election in a commercial hyping a commemorative Barack Obama plate. I noted the aberration and dismissed it as an attempt to connect with the New Messiah's constituency.

But as the event nears, I hear it falling from the lips of network news people - several of them - who really ought to know better. These are people who routinely pronounce goofy names like Ahmadinejad and Blagojevich. They should know better.

Or maybe, in this particular instance, it's appropriate.