Sometimes the "proper" pronunciation is no longer the accepted pronunciation. In the history of Jacksonville, FL during the 16th century a significant figure was a French explorer and colonizer named Jean Ribault. The proper pronunciation of his last name is Ree - boe'. In honor of Jean Ribault there a few things that were given his namesake, ex., the Ribault River and my high School, officially called the Jean Ribault High School.
Jean Ribault High School was established in 1957 and was commonly referred to as Ribault High. There was much confusion about the proper pronunciation of "Ribault". All purest knew the proper pronunciation was its French pronunciation, but the "everyday folks" had other ideas. The original disagreement was between Ree' -bault and Rie' - bault. It wasn't very long before Ree' - bault won out.
To this day the accepted pronunciation is Ree' - bault and not its French pronunciation. Is it correct? The folks of Jacksonville have decided to take their version as correct.
