# Eye-ran? Kiss my grits, Wolfie. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 9, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500 "2002-12-09T13:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/41 "2002-12-09T17:55:35Z")
I’m from Montana. That’s “tan” like “tan your hide,” not “tawn.” For that matter, it’s Nevada and Colorado – flat “a’s” – not Nevahda and Colorahdo. The surest sign of a non-native Westerner is replacing the Western flat “a” with a rounded one. But I admit this issue falls in the category of “Things I Can’t Break A Sweat About.” ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/42 "2002-12-09T17:59:43Z")
So Rev, if someone was on the television constantly mispronouncing the word “America” you wouldn’t want to correct them? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/43 "2002-12-09T18:08:12Z")
Not if it was a non-English speaking country and they weren’t a native English speaker. Since Wolf Blitzer is not a native speaker of Farsi then I cut him the same slack on “Iran”. ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/44 "2002-12-09T18:18:44Z")
Let’s see if I got it right: Eye-rain-ee-uns are from Eye-ran; Eye-rack-ees are from Eye-rack; Eye-tell-yuns are from It-lee. Sheesh! **Anahita:** Salam Doosteh Aziz: Bandeh be modateh seh saal dr Iran zendeghi kardam, vali motasefaaneh zabaaneh Farsi ra faramoosh nemoodehem! Behar hal; shenidan-e zbaan mara beh hayajaan miaavarad! Mesleh hamisheh, DT ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/45 "2002-12-09T19:58:33Z")
Meh. I chalk this up to “different people from different places have different accents.” Unless we get Rich Little to do all our news broadcasting, I don’t think there’s much we can do about it. ---
**Author:** ![Anahita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9a28c/32.png) [@Anahita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anahita)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/46 "2002-12-09T20:16:51Z")
It irritated me. I’m over it. No biggie. \*\* Salam, DaToad\*\* Goorbagheh hastee? Hehe. Farsi’t kheli khoob eh. Kohjah zendegee kardee? Man Ardebili hastam, vallee Tehran be donya omadam. Khodahafez Anahita ---
**Author:** ![Anahita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9a28c/32.png) [@Anahita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anahita)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/47 "2002-12-09T20:26:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > \*\*Not if it was a non-English speaking country and they weren’t a native English speaker. Since Wolf Blitzer is not a native speaker of Farsi then I cut him the same slack on “Iran”. \*\* I’m not asking him to learn Farsi. I’m asking him to use one of the hundreds of researchers that probably work for CNN in order to find out how it’s actually pronounced. I have seen other newscasters\* pronounce it correctly, and so, I assume he can learn, too. Eradicating ignorance and all that. \*Other native-English non-Farsi-speakers ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/48 "2002-12-09T22:20:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tsarina \* > \*\*_blushes_ I say it that way. But I think I’m one up on the rest of my family in that I don’t say “ay-rab”. > > What’s REALLY funny is hearing newscasters mangle the pronunciation of “Qatar”. \*\* There is a town in northern Alabama (aha! thought it was gonna be a Neil Young reference, eh?) called Arab. It is pronounced “Ay-rab.” This is the proper pronunciation. One might very well meet with bodily harm if one called it “Air-ub” in the presence of a local. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/49 "2002-12-09T22:33:19Z")
I believe the mods have warned people over posting in non-English tongues. “If we cannot readily tell whether you are being a jerk, you will be assumed to be one.” Killed the Morse posts dead, and closed more than a few foreign-language threads. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/50 "2002-12-09T23:36:34Z")
Americans seem to want to call my home country **Noo Zee-land** when in fact the correct pronunciation is **Aotearoa**. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/51 "2002-12-10T00:04:24Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Anahita \* > I’m not asking him to learn Farsi. I’m asking him to use one of the hundreds of researchers that probably work for CNN in order to find out how it’s actually pronounced. I have seen other newscasters pronounce it correctly, and so, I assume he can learn, too._ Well, IMO the slightly different pronounciation of Blitzer’s is close enough for a non-native speaker. I ask again, do you speak every English word perfectly? Do you wish to be corrected every time you make a mistake in how a vowel is pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/52 "2002-12-10T00:19:03Z")
I seem to recall a period in the early 90s where every second person pronounced Saddam Hussein’s name differently. And probably none of them were the way a true Iraqi would say it. In the end it doesn’t seem to matter as long as we are getting the point of the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/53 "2002-12-10T00:19:30Z")
**Revtim** , **Anahita** ’s American. I doubt this train of logic is going to help you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/54 "2002-12-10T00:24:44Z")
**Revtim** , **Anahita** is not asking for every word to be pronounced correctly, what she is railing against is the _consistent mispronunciation_ of a simple word by someone who, in his position as a newsreader, should be more sensitive to international pronunciations. I don’t think that’s too unreasonable to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Osip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4491bb/32.png) [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/55 "2002-12-10T00:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > **Or the name of that big city in Russia, Moskva? And where do you split the word into syllables?** Mosk **VA** stress on the VA 🙂 glad I could help! \*\* > [@](#): > > Your rant rates a zero. \*\* I agree ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/56 "2002-12-10T00:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > \*\*Well, IMO the slightly different pronounciation of Blitzer’s is close enough for a non-native speaker. > > I ask again, do you speak every English word perfectly? Do you wish to be corrected every time you make a mistake in how a vowel is pronounced? \*\* Easy there, chief. Blitzer ain’t the guy in the next cube, he’s a newscaster. Given the faux-authentic attempts by newscasters that have resulted in such things as Niiig-a-(vaguely phlemy sound)-raaa-gua (geez, remember that?!), it doesn’t seem out of line for someone to ask the guy to give it a shot with Iran. It’s not like the OP asked for the guy’s head on a plate or anything – it was a mild rant, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/57 "2002-12-10T00:40:10Z")
It is pronounced Eye-Ran. You know why? Because in Junior High, I learned a little rhyme: Iraq, I ran, to Afghanistan! That’s how we knew where they were from left to right to pass a geography test. So THERE! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/58 "2002-12-10T00:41:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LaurAnge \* > \*\ ***Revtim** , **Anahita** ’s American. I doubt this train of logic is going to help you very much. \*\* Nevertheless, my point that a non-native speaker pronouncing one vowel slightly “wrong” in a word should be cut come slack still stands. Especially when the pronounciation he uses is listed as an acceptable pronounciations in at least two dictionaries, as **beagledave** pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/59 "2002-12-10T00:43:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manhattan \* > \*\*It’s not like the OP asked for the guy’s head on a plate or anything – it was a mild rant, is all. \*\* Very true, I’ve certainly BBQed much worse over much less. Sorry to be so contrary, **Anahita**. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500/60 "2002-12-10T00:47:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*You mean Istanbul is Constantinople? \*\* Well folks just liked it better that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-ran-kiss-my-grits-wolfie/141500.md?page=4)