I’ve internally been saying “eesh eel”
… which now seems like calling it "me earl’
It is pretty close on the pronunciation, except ch is not sh. Unless you’re speaking certain regional dialects :)
I’ve only ever met a few native Germans in person, and understand just enough to get to the bathroom, so I don’t know if I just misheard, or they’re one of the few people who do say it that way.
I’ll take any native German’s word on their own language though! Lol or even anyone who’s studied.
I’m a German native who studied linguistics (ok, computational linguistics with a minor in phonetics and phonology), but I basically only speak my regional dialect well. I was visiting a friend in Berlin once and a stranger in a bar complimented me that I “speak good German for a foreigner”.
