If pronounciation was an irritant they would have saved a lot of the hand-wringing by just putting an acute accent on the "e", as in, "MATÉ".
Yes, I know it was invented in Argentina where the accent isn't used. But if creators were at all concerned about global pronunciation and knowing there is already a popular use of the spelling in English ... the compromise would have helped.
Since language prefers efficiency, the one-syllable version will not go away naturally -- the creators need to care enough to do something about it.
Consider how most people (and
even dictionaries) pronounce Linux as "Linnicks" even though Linus himself clearly wanted "Leenuks" in
a vary short and famous audio clip. He didn't press the issue and now the "canonical" pronunciation is all but dead.
Nanny-scolding and obscure videos won't work. Visual clues in the word itself will.
If only developers didn't detest marketing. It's not too late to add the accent.
- Evan