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?
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.
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.
[sub] :: to self - “Kah-BOOOOOOOOOL … Kah-BOOOOOOOL …”[/sub]
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.
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.
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 :).
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.
‘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!
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?
[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 [sub]who said, “What?”[/sub], it should be in thread spotting!
[/suck-up voice]
[sub]Sheesh! The things I’ll do to stay on a mod’s good side![/sub]
My first good laugh of the day!