Oh, yeah. Back to nuclear. If people just looked at the spelling of the word, I don’t see why they can’t figure out how to pronounce it. If you split the word up into two pseudo-words, it should be relatively easy.
IMO, the two easiest ways to split nuclear up are nu-clear and nuc-lear. The first split creates two words that should be easy for most English speakers to pronounce - “nu” (or “new”) and “clear”. Is it really hard for people to pronounce “clear”. It’s quite a common word. If one puts these two words together they get “new-clear”, which may sound like a brand of window cleaner, but also happens to be a good pronunciation of nuclear.
The second split creates two words that may be a bit more difficult to figure out but, combined, make a somewhat more accurate pronunciation of nuclear. “Nuc” (or “nuke” - a popular shortened version of nuclear) and “lear” (as in King Lear or a learjet). Combined, you get “nuke-lear”, which may sound like a military super-weapon, but also happens to be a somewhat better pronunciation of nuclear than “new-clear”.
And, whether someone pronounces the word as “new-clear” or “nuke-lear”, it’s definitely better than pronouncing it as “new-Q-lur”.
I’ve had this pointed out to me before on these very boards when I was railing about “nucular”.
I think the logic of the mispronunciation is a crock of shit. “Orange” is much rarer than “nuclear” when it comes to similar sounds in the language, yet we don’t see a dictionary-sanctioned dumbing down to pronounce it as “oranag”.
I mean, the dictionary is saying it’s okay to add an entire friggin’ syllable simply because the word is unusual.
Years ago I called a guy out about his saying “nucular” in referencing something about his job. I figured since he dealt with the term at work, he should learn how to pronounce it. He gave me a blank, uncomprehending stare. So I asked him what the center of a cell is called. He replied, without hesitation, “nuculous”.
Dated reference, but… it used to irk me that newsreaders would pronounce the city Berlin correctly with the accent on the 2nd syllable, but then when talking about the Berlin wall suddenly they became hillbillies, pronouncing it BER-lin.
The mispronunciation of nuclear is the most iritating for me.
I recall hearing President Bush saying “nu-q-lar”. Our president doesn’t even pronounce it correctly. :rolleyes:
At a district spelling bee in middle school and the word was nuclear. The speaker pronounced it “nu-q-lar”. The girl spelled it nucular. :smack: If it was me I would’ve protested, cause the idiot mispronounced it.
Also “huge”. I can’t stand when people say “Uge” .
The R escaped from how we (mostly) say Jaguar up here= Jag-wa(h).
As for nuclear does anyone know of a site with an audiofile of the popular mispronuncation? I can’t recall ever hearing anyone say anything but nu-clear. I know, Bush says it, but I hate presidential addresses(I don’t think I’ve gotten though an entire one yet, all the way back to Ronnie), so I’m not about to listen to one on the off chance he says it.
My boss does not say the word “an” in front of a noun that starts with a vowel. He will say “a apple.” It makes me crazy.
My audit teacher pronounced the word “litigious” as “li-ti-gu-ous” with a hard g. This also drove me crazy.
Many of the words you have mentioned make me nuts, like jewelry and realtor.
I sometimes use words that people don’t get, such as the word “natty.” The people I said it to thought it had the opposite meaning.
Anyway, I am well-known at my office for my picky ways of pronouncing things. Unfortunately, this doesn’t get me too far, because I CAN’T PRONOUCE THE WORD THROW. For some unknown reason, I leave the r out. This is true for throw, threw and through. I’ll be talking away and everyone starts laughing at me AGAIN! Of course, I can say it right, but unconsciously say it wrong EVERY TIME.
