The word is French; "neesh" is the correct pronunciation. However, Americans tend to butcher French pronunciations, which - in the 18th century - was an intentional slight directed at King George. Today, well, we've just always heard it pronounced wrong.
Sounds like "nich". In some spanish countries means "black man" BTW check this out ! http://www.answers.com/topic/grupo-niche
Say 'rich' and then change the r to an 'n.' You say 'nich' cause if you do it right, it'll make you 'rich!'
How do you pronounce cliche? I've never heard anyone call niche (nee-shay) either but it seems like that would be the correct way. So the English have taken the (ay) sound off and the Americans have taken the (e) off and just pronounce it like rich, but both have butchered the word.
OK so here's another: I have always pronounced 'cache' (in terms of memory) as 'cash' so I was surprised to recently hear a computer expert pronounce it as 'Cashay' - in other words as the French would if it had an acute accent on the final letter. This thread kind of proves that we should all stop typing so much, get out more and actually talk to people for a change
Cliche has an acute accent on the e (or would do if there was a special characters facility on the toolbar). Thats why you pronounce it that way. Most people leave it off, which is why it looks strange.
this is kind of funny because I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking instead of typing it saves me so much time and when I say (neesh to it) this is what comes out (Aneesh) LOL but when I say (nitch to it) it comes out niche... so according to the software I must use the pronunciation that rhymes with itch