Funny but we all seem to remember it differently. My version    goes like this: It started out as aluminum in England but someone (not the elements' discoverer) wanted it to be named in a way that paralleled other elements names and threw in that extra syllable. The US was already split off from Britain by that time and simply went along with the original, aluminum.

It is named for the oxide that is the source of the metal, alumina, as preferred by the German who sorta' discovered it (actually isolated the elemental metal aluminum).

Either way, I always thought the stuff was the same but the price must go up when it is called aluminium. Besides, lots of people I know call it 'alumimum', in the same way they call asphalt 'ashphalt'.

The name of the element is alumium. I believe that the usage of aluminum came from ALCOA, the Aluminum Company of America). The brand name overcame the element's correct name, like Frigidare (refrigerator), Xerox (photocopier) and Kleenex (tissue).

One of my university profs insisted that if we used aluminum, we should also use germanum, strontum, etc.

I have often heard of different areas of certain countries as having 'no accent', such as Hanover, Germany, and several places in the northern - mid-west US. But after actually speaking with people from these 'no accent' places in the US, I have found they do have a regional accent as well as some local quirks (the 'ruff' thing and similar). So as I said, I suspect that most people in the public eye, such as newscasters and many entertainers, have perfected a perfectly neutral speech pattern that really does not exist outside a dialog coach's place of business :-)

Charlize Theron once said that she adopted the speech pattern she now uses (perfect, neutral American) because it was just too difficult to go back and forth with her speech pattern. Many Americans would probably be astounded to know that she is actually South African and used to speak with a very distinct regional accent. Also, her first language is not English but Afrikaans, an evolution of Dutch, which is of course is itself and off- shoot of German, as is English. Which I speak fluently and without any accent...... yeah, that's the ticket.

For whatever it is worth: I think regional accents and idioms are both interesting and of some value. I enjoy listening to people with regional accents and find some of these accents quite nice- the rhythmic speech of many areas of the south, for example. I have listened to Shelby Foote speak (with his Mississippi delta accent) speak for hours and thoroughly enjoyed it, both the accent and his stories. I also greatly enjoy listening to Jerry Miculek with his Cajun (southern Louisiana- it is unique even to most Americans) accent and general speech pattern. I actually like the accents used in both the movie and TV series Fargo, which is apparently a typical speech pattern of Nordic (specifically Scandinavian) peoples who have settled in the north- central- west area of the US. I think we should embrace our regional characteristics rather than try to diminish them- they bring interesting aspects to a 'melting pot' society; after all, where else could Olive Garden (that genuine / fake Italian style eatery) thrive but in a place where lots of Americans think they are eating genuine ethnic foods? I particularly like their fake fettuccine, which I find excellent and have learned to duplicate at home (real Fettuccine has no cream in it but that makes a slimy, thin mess IMO).

Brian ( I don't caaah about fittin' in with anyone's expectations about how I should speak)

Dare we even consider catsup vs ketchup?
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Johnny Carson frequently comes up as an American with no accent (by USA standards) and has been used as an example of region-less American English. He was from
Nebraska but I suspect he had some accent at some point and worked on it. This map supposedly shows where general American English is used.

http://dialectblog.com/2011/08/01/general-american-english/

This English vs English discussion made me think of the practical joke played on Johnny Carson in England where he was invited to a cocktail party and all the Brits at the party
were actors speaking gibberish. Johnny stood there nodding and smiling pretending to understand what they were saying.

Did a search on Alumium and it said it was obsolete and on the Periodic table it shows as Aluminum, not Alumium. . . .

Intriguing. Wikipedia's article on the periodic table
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table#Metals,_metalloids_and_nonmetals
includes aluminium but not aluminum.

(It's raining and cool here in Ottawa, hence the interest in the arcane)

Personally I prefer Aluminium over the US pronunciation but I'm somewhat biased..

Jeez (Geeze...Cheez......Luweez) don't get me started.  I have almost given up trying to watch the local news on TV.  In Washington State we have a lot of places and things that were originally named by the Native Americans before the Europeans stole everything from them and bastardized it all.  It seems that lately we have a lot of recently transplanted people who come from other regions and don't take the time to learn local pronunciations. 

We have a city, Yakima, that used to be called Yak-i-maw.  Now the new(s) people have taken to calling it Yak-im-u.

Our state capitol is in O-lym-pee-a, now called U-lim-pee-uh.

It seems that for every word that starts with a vowel, the first sound has morphed into a generic "Uhh" sound.  Uh-mergency, uh-rested, etc.

And I am sick to death of hearing people use the word "impact" when they really mean "effect". 

Up here we designate our highways as "I-5" or "405".  Transplanted folks (especially Kaliphorneeyans) give themselves away by saying "THE I-5" and "THE 405".

Our native bivalve is the geoduck, real name pronounced Gwee-duk", but Anglicized as "Gooey-duck". 

And everyone under the age of thirty composes their sentences of endless streams of "Umm...like....ya know....." with little use of words that actually convey information.

Another major peeve I have is with people who say things like "me and my girlfriend seen this car wreck" instead of "my girlfriend and I saw a car wreck", because they weren't taught how to properly compose a compound sentence.

It has been a few years since I attended what used to be called "grammar school" (I'm 65 years old), but it sure seems as if they no longer teach actual English grammar and pronunciation.

And everyone under the age of thirty composes their sentences of endless streams of "Umm...like...."

Not just under 30.  One of my employees, a 45-year-old male, is also inflicted.  To me, nothing is more distracting and irritating than hearing endless, mindless, misuse of the word "like."  I am to the point now that I wish the word were banned from the English language completely.  Even a greatly respected postcaster I listen to, who is quite intelligent and thoughtful, can't formulate more than a few sentences without the word "like."

I was, like,
It was, like,
I am, like,
Do you, like, go
What, like, do you think
Like, when are they

If the person he is interviewing is also a "liker", then use doesn't just double, it triples because they seem to feed off of each other.

https://www.sankinspeechimprovement.com/the-like-epidemic-using-word-like-excessively/

pronounced the same, mean the same, but spelled differently..... Gray...or ...Grey.... 

Other than peoples' actual names I have found the grey spelling to be much more common. It seems 'the world' prefers grey while I personally like gray and use it whenever it is not a proper name.

This one time, in banned camp in Germany, I needed to say the color gray but did not know the word in German.... so I said 'schwartz und weiss' (black and white in English) while making mixing motions with my hands. Hey, maybe not the slickest way to communicate but they got the idea (or idear for some of you in Kansas). Successful communications and I learned the word for gray, 'grau'.

Brian (not Bryan but sometimes people call me that anyway)

Yep.  I was taught "grey" for some reason, and it seems every spell checker prefers "gray."  After decades of using grey, I am now grey, and too old to change (but not too old to dye it out).

Not just under 30.  One of my employees, a 45-year-old male, is also inflicted afflicted .  To me, nothing is more distracting and irritating than hearing endless, mindless, misuse of the word "like."  I am to the point now that I wish the word were banned from the English language completely.  Even a greatly respected postcaster I listen to, who is quite intelligent and thoughtful, can't formulate more than a few sentences without the word "like."

I was, like,
It was, like,
I am, like,
Do you, like, go
What, like, do you think
Like, when are they

If the person he is interviewing is also a "liker", then use doesn't just double, it triples because they seem to feed off of each other.

https://www.sankinspeechimprovement.com/the-like-epidemic-using-word-like-excessively/

FIFY...I think.  But you may be right..

For instance the word been.  Most US people use 'bin'.  I use the English version 'bean'.  Totally made fun of me while I was in HS here.  I love watching English TV over here as I feel at home with the language.   The word herb.  Pronounced over here 'erb'.  I pronounce it 'herb'.  The wife gives me heck over this one.