Yeah, Merk from Erk might've ruined Robin Williams career!

But the original question brings to mind a similar situation I've always pondered pertaining to Newark. Here, in New Jersey, we pronounce it New-work (or New-erk), but in other places (i.e. Delaware) it's pronounced New-ark. And these two pronunciations seem to vary arbitrarily from region to region. Why so? I think we missed this on the Houston Street/Houston thread when we discussed the different pronunciations of certain place names (Arkansas, etc). Or did we?