# Come Mister Tallyban tally me banana **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 2, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-mister-tallyban-tally-me-banana/519675 "2009-12-02T05:12:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 10
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-mister-tallyban-tally-me-banana/519675/10 "2009-12-02T09:38:48Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Cite for this being a wrong pronunciation, as opposed to just a _different_ one? Obama also pronounces Pakistan differently from most people, although other people in his administration seem to say it the same way. But he’s not saying Pakistan wrong, and I think it’s closer to the way the word is pronounced in Urdu. Obama pronounces Pakistan as the locals do. Taliban, locally, is pronounced taa-li-baan, with a soft T sound that no American I know seems to be able to differentiate from a hard T sound. It’s a sound that I think doesn’t exist in the English language, or at least I’m unable to find a word that uses it, to be able to explain the difference to my friends. The closest I can come to an explanation is this: Say tree. Now say three. See where your tongue is when you say three? It’s not the same place as tree, right? Now say T with your tongue at the the position where you start the word three. That’s a soft T sound. Am I making any sense? Next time you meet a South Asian friend, ask them to pronounce a native language word that uses a soft T and a hard T, and see if you can make out the difference. Chances are, you can’t. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-mister-tallyban-tally-me-banana/519675)._