# Learn how to pronounce, "President" Bush **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 7, 2003, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638 "2003-03-07T02:41:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/61 "2003-03-07T12:59:05Z")
FWIW, Steve: One thing I find irritating (to the point of teeth-grinding) is the so-called misuse of ‘myself’ when one obviously means ‘me.’ 😃 But that’s just a broadening of the meaning of the reflexive pronoun, so I really shouldn’t let it ruin my dental work! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/62 "2003-03-07T13:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > **Perhaps he uses that because he believes that the dialect is part of what got him into the White House; i.e, the people like him and that’s part of him. I’ve never asked the man, so I don’t know; however, it is possible.** You may indeed be right. Alas, I’m sure we’ll never know. > [@](#): > > \*\*One thing I find irritating (to the point of teeth-grinding) is the so-called misuse of ‘myself’ when one obviously means ‘me.’ 😃 But that’s just a broadening of the meaning of the reflexive pronoun, so I really shouldn’t let it ruin my dental work! \*\* This usage is _rife_ in Ireland. It annoys myself too, but myself has got used to it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/63 "2003-03-07T13:05:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\* For ‘unclear’ the ‘k’ sound in the first word is at the beginning of a syllable and in the second word it’s at the end of a syllable. \*\* Tisn’t: **'nju:klI@** (where @ is a schwa). The k sound begins the second syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/64 "2003-03-07T13:06:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*You may indeed be right. Alas, I’m sure we’ll never know. This usage is _rife_ in Ireland. It annoys myself too, but myself has got used to it. \*\* You can start worrying if you start using “I and I”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/65 "2003-03-07T13:08:13Z")
jr8: You pronounce it nyu - clear? & folks are griping about Bush’s?! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/66 "2003-03-07T13:19:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*Steve: There’s a bit of difference between the ‘cl’ in ‘unclear’ and ‘nuclear’ even if you pronounce ‘nuclear’ the way it’s pronounced in SAE. For ‘unclear’ the ‘k’ sound in the first word is at the beginning of a syllable and in the second word it’s at the end of a syllable. One doesn’t even have to address the fact of morpheme boundary present in ‘unclear.’ \*\* The stress is different, too, in the two words pronounced in isolation … but I’m dubious, still. Saying that “there is a phonotactic rule in Bush’s dialect which prohibits the ‘-cl-’ combination in the very specific circumstances applying in the context of the word ‘nuclear’” just strikes me as a long-winded version of “Bush pronounces ‘nuclear’ a funny way” … I’d be more inclined to credit the phonotactic explanation if we could turn up _another_ word which is affected the same way. (Which shouldn’t be impossible, if this is the case - the man’s every slip of the tongue and verbal gaffe is published on the Internet within hours of him making it, there’s got to be enough material out there to write a definitive textbook of Bush’s dialect.) **jr8** : I multitask - I can be neurotic _and_ non-rhotic at the same time … ---
**Author:** ![mighty\_maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@mighty\_maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mighty_maxx)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/67 "2003-03-07T13:40:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mystic2311 \* > \*\*That is pure bullshit, Monty. Bush is a dyslexic, ignorant fuck and everybody knows it. Why are you enabling his dry drunk dysphonics? \*\* I hope you’re not insinuating the dyslexia and ignorance go hand in hand. If so my father and I would have to disagree. I find Bush’s pronunciations endearing, not retarded. I come from a well educated family who are well aware of proper pronunciations, but tend use the accent they were raised with. They use it not because they are stupid, but because it is a apart of who they are. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/68 "2003-03-07T14:37:18Z")
mighty\_maxx: It is kind of amusing to note that the folks griping about Bush’s “incorrect” usage of the langauge also are evidencing some “incorrect” usage themselves. In other words: we all speak differently. As Coldfire indicated above, dismissing his policies out of hand because one doesn’t like his speech patterns isn’t exactly a smart choice. BTW, mystic: I was under the impression that bush doesn’t drink alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/69 "2003-03-07T15:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. I don’t want to turn this into a political discussion. I will say I voted in 2000, and I did not vote for Bush or Gore. Did you vote for Nader? If so, shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Anyone who voted for Nader and helped split the Democratic vote is at least partially responsible for putting that buffoon in office, so, again, shut up. > [@](#): > > So when I use “President” in quotes, I’m doing it out of spite for the person, not because I think he shouldn’t be President because of the flawed Electoral College system. I don’t want to argue about it. Using quotes out of spite makes you look like a petty jerk, and if you don’t want to argue about it, then don’t post in the Pit, Jackson. Like it or not, our flawed system (and every single one of you idiots who voted for Nader) put Bush in the White House and he is the legitimate president. Although after watching Michael Radfords’s masterful film adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic, **1984** last night, I can’t help but wonder if George Bush can clearly pronounce the three principles of IngSoc. The idea of permanent warfare against an ever-shifting enemy to serve as a focus for the masses’ discontent sure looks like our foreign policy these days. “War is peace” indeed! Be seeing you in the Ministry of Love. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/70 "2003-03-07T15:30:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*jr8: You pronounce it nyu - clear? & folks are griping about Bush’s?! \*\* If you don’t like it you can take it up with the Concise Oxford Dictionary (ninth ed.), which was my source for that. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/71 "2003-03-07T15:31:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*What we have here folks is the collision between phonetics & dictionaries written without the phonetic alphabet. In short, I’m going to go with the way I hear the professional linguists pronounce the word. \*\* Go to the [m-w.com](http://m-w.com) site. Search for larynx. Click on the audio clip. You will very clearly hear it say ‘lare-inx’, not ‘lare-nix’. And ‘nyu-clear’, though a bit inflected, is the proper pronounciation of nuclear. You kind of glide the first syllable together. No one’s dismissing Bush’s policies out of hand because he mispronounces a word. It just makes him sound uninformed. It’d be like him announcing an education plan that included more funding to ‘li-berries’. ---
**Author:** ![Janie\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@Janie\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janie_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/72 "2003-03-07T15:50:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neuroman \* > \*\*Ha! I’d like to ask you to refamiliarize yourself with a little thing called “The War for Texas Independence.” > 😛 \*\* How’s that going, by the way? Any progress? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/73 "2003-03-07T16:05:20Z")
All you’re doing, jr8, is proving that different regions (especially those separated by the vast expanse of an ocean) have different pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/74 "2003-03-07T16:27:04Z")
Just to clarify (in case there’s any doubt), “nyoo” is how people with English accents pronounce “New” and the first syllable in “Nuclear”. I think this is consistent with US (and GWB’s) prounciation too. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/75 "2003-03-07T16:32:39Z")
Ummm, **Monty**? I believe that back on the last page I asked if you could hook me up to a dictionary site that _does_ use the phonetic alphabet. I also believe that I was reasonably respectful in my question. If the answer is, “No, I can’t,” there’s no need to be shy about saying so. If you **can** , however, I would very much appreciate you doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/76 "2003-03-07T16:40:52Z")
Is the “you” sound in “nyook-you-ler” really a “you” sound, or is it really a glottal stop? It seems to me that what could have happened is that “nuclear” could have come to have been pronounced “nyook-ler”, the “lear” blending together, and then, with a hard k sound before, the glottal stop would just introduce itself. ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/77 "2003-03-07T17:04:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > **Is the “you” sound in “nyook-you-ler” really a “you” sound, or is it really a glottal stop?** Doubtful. I don’t think the dialect in question has glottal stops in its phonetic inventory (can a Texan confirm this?). Rather, it seems as though speakers insert a diphthong to balance out the word based on some phonological rule–_a la_ **Monty** ’s phonotactics. [off topic] **kaylasdad99** , I’ve never come across a dictionary that uses IPA. I think that as the lexicographers have been around longer than the IPA, inertia has left us with the numerous transcription techniques. However, I too would very much appreciate someone knowing different posting a link. [/off topic] ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/78 "2003-03-07T17:49:53Z")
If you guys don’t stop bitching about that stupid word, myself is gonna rip my larenix out and nyook the living shit out of all you bastards with it. ---
**Author:** ![Toaster52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/50afbb/32.png) [@Toaster52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toaster52)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/79 "2003-03-07T18:25:37Z")
**Monty** _“So, getting back to larngks what we’re dealing with at the end is the velar nasal followed by the voiceless velar stop which is in turn followed by the voiceless alveolar fricative.”_ Owwwwwwwww… my head hurts… ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638/80 "2003-03-07T18:28:33Z")
I have a proposal. . .let’s substitute the good old-fashioned 50s sci-fi word, “atomic”, and then delete “nuclear” from the language so that we can throttle this petty pedantry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learn-how-to-pronounce-president-bush/159638.md?page=5)