Pronounciation of Hoechst - (Dec/21/2005 )
actually nice that someone cares about the pronunciation
I'm a german-korean. And come to think of it its quite hard to find an english word to explain the correct pronounciation 
I checked the sound file on http://dict.leo.org. Though they say the "oe" correct, the following "ch" sounds wrong.
The closest thing i could imagine was the word "her". Now try to speak that without the r-sound and you have the first part. The "ch" is spoken like the in the word "Loch Ness" and the "st" like in "stone".
Have fun trying that - maybe sticking up a dried noodle in your throat will help 
Compare the oe with amoeba. I think that ch is 'kh' not 'sh'.
So its hee/ikhst or hi/eekst???
But that german throat o seems more correct. 
hrushikesh
Phonetically, Hoechst is pronounced
HER-SHH-T (sharp t)
If you blend these sounds together you'll get something that sounds like the nonreal-word HERSHED (as in the past participle of the nonreal-verb TO HERSH).
for me as an austrian and "Höchst" as a neibourgh town i also would agree with ila and call it "hoexst"
cheers
pan
i have yet another: HERKST
at least that's what our German post-doc's pronunciation sounded like to my ears.
OK now one more doubt!!! How do you pronounce "Apoptosis"??????
Is is aptosis? apoptosis ? Apotosis???
If pronounced properly the second 'p' should be silent and hence apoptosis is pronouned as 'apotosis'. You don't get to many people doing this though the odd wrinkly Prof might.
I will add though that this is based on the word's two Greek roots (Apo + Ptosis) where the second root has a silent 'p' as in pterodactyl (Pter + Dactyl). There is however debate that English is not Greek and hence verbalising the second 'p' is quite acceptable. There are examples of Greek-rooted words containing a silent 'p' (in Greek) that do not contain the silent 'p' in English. The principal example being 'HELICOPTER' (Helico - spiral + Pter - wing), unless you know someone who uses the classical pronounciation of 'helico-ter'
...I must admit I am impressed!
I studied ancient Greek for 5 years when I was at the highschool and I can't find a better and more precise explanation!
Congratulations!!!