Cobble? We're Bombing in Cobble?

[Ukulele Ike]

When the hell did they change the pronounciation of Kabul? The clockradio comes on this morning and the newsies are all talking about "Cobble." Is this some "YUR-a-nuss" as opposed to "Your Anus" thing?

I always thought you had to say Kah-BOOOOOOOL...really letting it rollllll across your tongue.

Like Frank Nelson on the old Jack Benny Program saying "Yuhhhhhhh-essssSSSSSS?" or like Sean Connery in the role of a Imperalist-era British Colonel saying "In-JAHHHHHH."

Was I wrong all along? Was it always Cobble? Was everyone snickering behind my back in my International Affairs seminars?

[Padeye]

I dunno about pronunciation but how else are we going to fill our desperate shortage of Kabul stones?

[Zebra]

My hovel in Cobble was reduced to robble.

the hamburgler

[MsWhatsit]

I checked on m-w.com, and they list "cobble" as the preferred pronunciation (i.e., it comes first in the list), but "ka-booooool" is listed as a secondary acceptable pronunciation.

[Revtim]

I always thought it was "Kah-BOOOOOOOL" too, glad I'm not the only one.

[BigGiantHead]

Me, I been saying it the generally conventional way I'm seeing here, I just didn't realize you had to put so many O's in it! I been puttin' tops - TOPS - two, maybe three in there. Sheesh, I better get caught up.

_{:: to self - "Kah-BOOOOOOOOOL ... Kah-BOOOOOOOL ..."}

[Northern Piper]

Don't worry, Ike - I just heard Wolf Blitzer talking about the bombing, and he put at least three o's into it. So at least one member of the Corporate Media hasn't been brainwashed by the Short-U Society.

[Pucette]

It helps me when I think of it as KAH-buhl rather than Cobble. With that "u" pronounced shwa-esquely.

[Trucido]

The anchors on the BBC World Service have been pronouncing it somewhat like cobble from the beginning. They tend to drag out the 'a' the slightest bit, resulting in Kaa-bl. It's not really a full double-length though, more like one and a quarter. Perhaps it's just some American tendency, though, for me to think the BBC's pronounciation more proper than the popular one.

Well, I see in preview that Pucette has rendered the pronounciation I'm trying to describe much more neatly.

[everton]

FWIW, my dictionary (Collins Oxford) has the M-W ones in reverse order of preference, but the BBC have been pronouncing it KAH-bl for as long as I can remember. Still doesn't sound quite like cobble to me though.

The Voice of America has a guide to pronouncing it, which you can check by clicking here (then use the Text Search field). Yep, that sounds just like cobble to me too, but I think they need a longer "a".

Better still, why not check out the Afghan Teens Network homepage (seriously) for advice on how to pronounce their whole alphabet, then see how Kabul is written down in Dari and Hey Presto, Bob's yer uncle, Fanny's yer aunt .

[everton]

Whoops, Pucette and Trucido both seem to have beaten me to it. Hope the links help though.

[Gala Matrix Fire]

Speaking of which, did you notice they're pronouncing Qatar as "Gutter"?

[Polycarp]

Ike, William Safire dealt with this 20 years ago, when Kabul was being bombed by the Evil Empire, not us.

You can blame Rudyard Kipling for the error.

KAH-b'l is the preferred pronunciation in Pashto and the international standard.

However, Rudyard made use of it in several poems and stories, notably "The Wolf of Kabul," and for metrical reasons he tended to make it iambic, to rhyme with "too full." And thanks to his Victorian/Edwardian popularity, that version caught on.

So don't criticize the announcers for saying it correctly.

[Ukulele Ike]

'E carried me away
To where dictionaries lay,
An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar sharp.
'E put me safe aside,
An' just before 'e died,
"I 'ope you liked your corrected pronounciation", sez Polycarp.
So I'll meet 'im later on
At the place where 'e is gone --
Where it's always double drill and no dry tarp;
'E'll be squattin' on the coals
Givin' pronounciations to poor damned souls,
An' I'll get corrected in Hell by Polycarp!
Yes, Carp! Carp! Carp!
You Lazarushian-leather Polycarp!
Though I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better pronouncer than I am, Polycarp!

[vix]

Originally posted by Pucette
With that "u" pronounced shwa-esquely.

Yeah, that's a word.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by Polycarp
So don't criticize the announcers for saying it correctly.

Oh, I wouldn't think of criticizing. As far as I'm concerned, they're all peach Kabul-ers.



-- Uke, inordinately pleased with himself for that "Gunga Din" thing and making a ghastly pun as an excuse to boost his own thread so more people see it, who YOU calling pathetic, bub?

[Damhna]

Originally posted by Revtim
I always thought it was "Kah-BOOOOOOOL" too, glad I'm not the only one.

You mean it's not Kah-BOOOOOOOM ?

[Northern Piper]

-- Uke, inordinately pleased with himself for that "Gunga Din" thing and making a ghastly pun as an excuse to boost his own thread so more people see it, who YOU calling pathetic, bub?

[suck-up voice]
Oh, Uke, that was the best piece of parody verse ever written! I laughed like crazy, I showed it to the Beloved _{who said, "What?"}, it should be in thread spotting!
[/suck-up voice]









_{Sheesh! The things I'll do to stay on a mod's good side!}

[jesuslynch]

Thanks for reminding me. I've got some shoes that I need to have half-soled.

[cygnus]

Originally posted by BigGiantHead
Me, I been saying it the generally conventional way I'm seeing here, I just didn't realize you had to put so many O's in it! I been puttin' tops - TOPS - two, maybe three in there. Sheesh, I better get caught up.

_{:: to self - "Kah-BOOOOOOOOOL ... Kah-BOOOOOOOL ..."}

My first good laugh of the day!

[London_Calling]

Ikey! Ikey! burning bright
In cyber space through the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful dictionary?
In what distant dank Yankee lair
Laid he the Queens English bare ?
On what substance dare he inhale?
What the hand dare mock impale?
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of this old fart
And when the fart began his cheer,
The English cried: "Get outta here !"
What the grammar? what the shame?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the verb? what dread grasp
Dare Ike's deadly language clasp?

[London_Calling]

<finking out loud>

And if bastardising Blake don't rile 'im up, nuffin will.

</finking out loud>

[Polycarp]

I loved it.

But now what do I do with this absolutely terrific pun on "urinous" saved up from your OP?

By the shores of the Thames River
From the metropolis of England
Posts the wily London Calling,
Resource man on all things English.
Seek ye facts on matters British?
London Calling will produce them.
Now of Blake he makes a pastiche,
Like the mighty Ukulele
Who, when asked if he likes Kipling,
Answers, "No, I've never kippled."
If to you I mock Longfellow
I tell you it's not his meter
From the mighty Finns he stole it
Who used it in Kalevala.

[lno]

In Afghanistan did Rudyard K
A bastardized pronunciation decree :
Where Kabul, that bombed-out city, sat
In the mountains, while being pounded flat
By some Tomahawks and an F-15E.

So twice five flights of laser-guided bombs
While Americans back home discussed with aplomb :
Whether KAH-b'l or Cobble until they had their fill,
The argument (or discussion) raged in the thread ;
But then, lest they invoke the long-gone Wildest Bill,
They reached consensus, and left the thread for dead.

_{Cut me some slack, I feel like I'm as much opium as Coleridge was...}

[London_Calling]

Just want to quickly bump this because I forgot to offer fulsome thanks to Poly for his delicious Longfellow - it suddenly played on my mind that I hadn't. Cheers !

Also, I feel a little guilty for calling the esteemed Ukulele Ike an old fart, but we're of not dissimilar ages so I hope he understood.

[Rilchiam]

Just this afternoon I heard "cabble".