In message , at 22:27:14 on
Wed, 30 Jun 2010, Chris Tolley remarked:
We've always said Puh-KIP-see. *When I was an undergraduate at mostly
male Yale, Poughkeepsie, the location of all-female Vassar College,
was of great interest.

I've heard other people pronounce it closer to pickup-see.

Not necessarily indicative. Pronunciations like that could just be pet
names rather than poor attempts to pronounce the name properly.

e.g. Brummagem.

I was on a KLM plane to Birmingham a few years ago, and the cabin crew
announcements were done in a thick Dutch accent, apart from the word
"Birmingham" which was pronounced with a perfect local (Birmingham)
accent.
--
Roland Perry