I’m sure glad we have a SMART president now, unlike the idiot who didn’t know how to pronounce “nucular.”
Wonder when Letterman will start broadcasting this one.
I’m sure glad we have a SMART president now, unlike the idiot who didn’t know how to pronounce “nucular.”
Wonder when Letterman will start broadcasting this one.
Maybe he visited Orion, Illinois in his youth.
We’ve had two of these, one of whom served on a nuclear submarine.
At about 10 seconds in, he stops and asks Neal Verfuerth, President and CEO of Orion, if he’s saying it properly, but it’s not clear if “it” refers to the name of the company (which may have an idiosyncratic pronunciation) or Neal’s last name. So, first, I’d like some confirmation that Obama is, indeed, mispronouncing anything at all.
After that, I can go ahead and continue with my not caring one way or the other.
I’m guessing that Obama will be able to correct himself. We’ll see.
No, Carter never served on a “nukuler” submarine. He left the program before completion. He still was in the program long enough to learn the correct pronunciation, although was apparently unable to overcome his Georgia accent to do so.
He seems to be asking about the CEO’s name.
Obama did come back to the microphone after finishing his prepared remarks to correct his pronunciation of “Orion.” From here:
Nevermind: just found a company promo on YouTube, and “Orion” is pronounced the way you’d expect. Still, Obama got “Verfuerth” correct, which is impressive in its own right.
Just want to point out that I would have pronounced it “Oh-RYE-un”, not “Ore-EYE-un”. But that’s just me.
Thanks for the correction. Wiki confirms that he trained to be an engineering officer on a nuclear sub, but left the Navy before any were actually in service.
Same here. dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com back us up.
No, it’s not.
BTW, it always tickles the hell out of me to see ShibbOleth turn up in any pronunciation thread.
And therein lies the difference between the two people. One who acknowledges and corrects his mistakes, and one who doesn’t give a royal fuck.
Er, maybe I’m just clueless here but what is the difference? Would one of these have a long o as the first syllable rather than a schwa?
Fun fact from Ovid: Orion was formed from the urine of three gods.
As someone who grew up very close to that town of less than 2,000 people, I’m impressed that someone who doesn’t even live in North America made this comment. Well played.
Not just you - my dialect has it “oh-RYE-un”
One of them includes the R in the first syllable, the other doesn’t. It’s a very subtle difference, as opposed to the President’s apparent gaffe, which sounds more like he was reading from a teleprompter without thinking about the word. IMO it seemed he was so concerned with correctly pronouncing that guy’s name that he didn’t think about the name of the company.
Why thank you.
Am I missing something here, or is this thread intended to equate the language skills of the current US President with the skills of the barely functionally verbal previous incumbent?
You’d think we’d have better things to worry about these days. I guess not.