When my Cognition fails me.....

Today I didn't recognize the word DENIAL reading words in the picture in the previous post (about the linguist's mind).

I even looked it up in the Dictionary!!! and was shocked to learn that I know it! !!!!! But of course I know it!!!!!
But I read it the way we read German words - it sounds the way it is written, or Latin...
Why so?...this question is vexing me now....

I do know that the verb is DENY and the noun is DENIAL. i know it like the ABC in my native language. But....What makes it slip from my perception and deceive me?
I read it over and over again and every time my eyes come to this borederline in the word between "N-I" I want to pronounce it as [ni] and not [nai].
TRIAL is no hindrance for my perception but DENIAL is...
There should be something about the universal structures I have in my mind, some other parallels unknown to me yet that make me stumble before reading it correctly...
The MIND...a mysterious creation....