# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 122
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2442 "2025-06-06T20:37:41Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > On one hand the spelling is weird for something pronounced “My kull”. And “Michael” isn’t? If I wasn’t familiar with the name, based on the spelling I’d probably want to pronounce it “My-Chale”, or “My-Shale”. (Unless you were referencing the normal spelling of “Michael”, then I think that I was just reinforcing your point.) Oh, and by the way, my RL first name is spelled wrong all the time, and as long as it’s not going to cause a problem (such as an official document or record) I gave up correcting people a long time ago. (It’s not even a weird spelling, just the second-most-common spelling of it.) ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2443 "2025-06-06T20:42:02Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > If I wasn’t familiar with the name, based on the spelling I’d probably want to pronounce it “My-Chale”, or “My-Shale”. “Mr. Jackson” if you’re nasty. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2444 "2025-06-06T20:48:21Z")
I agree with you laehcim. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2445 "2025-06-06T21:17:13Z")
Michael is like Rafael. Rafael is easy becausee we pronounce it RAFF [long A sound] ell. So pronounce it mentally as MIKE-[long-a]-ell and it’ll be easy to keep straight. And no, I’m not a Michael IRL. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2446 "2025-06-06T21:24:46Z")
All the archangels are the same, ending in -el for “God.” Raphael Michael Gabrael …wait, that’s not right. (And Irish Mícheál is more like mee-hall, FWIW). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2447 "2025-06-06T21:26:07Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > (And Irish Mícheál is more like mee-hall, FWIW). French “Michel” is “mee-shell”. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2448 "2025-06-06T21:55:09Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > French “Michel” is “mee-shell”. In German, “Michael” is pronounced Mee-cha-el. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2449 "2025-06-07T02:53:55Z")
I have a female friend named Michal. A family member named Michelle (F), another named Michele (F), a neighbor named Michel (M), a coworker named Michele (M), multiple people in my life named Michael (only about half go by “Mike”) and one oddball named _Mitchael_ (“Mitchell”, M). Names are weird. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2450 "2025-06-08T00:32:29Z")
I know a woman named Michael. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2451 "2025-06-08T01:14:44Z")
[Michael Learned](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Learned) was a well-known actress as well ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2452 "2025-06-08T01:26:27Z")
And [Michael Steele](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Steele_(musician)), bassist for the Runaways and the Bangles. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2453 "2025-06-08T05:52:17Z")
Like it’s supposed to be pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2454 "2025-06-08T06:06:15Z")
My good friend in grade school was of Norske stock: his name was “Mikal”, so it took me a long time to get used to the common spelling. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2455 "2025-06-08T06:08:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Like it’s supposed to be pronounced I have a friend who is Israeli, Michel, which I think is the way it is supposed to be pronounced in Hebrew, albeit with a gutteral “ch” which does not exist in English. I don’t know the phoneme, but I think it is pronounced as χ ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2456 "2025-06-08T15:03:48Z")
And of course the Russian Mikhail which sorta’ preserves the guttural ch ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2457 "2025-06-08T19:39:25Z")
Oddly, when you put «Михаил» into gtranslate, Russian → Hebrew, it comes back with “מייקל”, which appears to have a standard k guttural stop, not a χ or ɣ guttural fricative (as «Михаил» has). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2458 "2025-06-08T19:46:48Z")
Are you sure? In Hebrew the name is pronounced “Mee-cha-EL” (or “MEE-cha-el” if you’re being informal). Three distinct vowels. Or if your friend a girl? Because there’s also an unrelated girl’s name, Michal (Mee-CHAHL”). ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2459 "2025-06-08T21:02:06Z")
I hate to barge in and change the subject, but… > **[Trump calls Musk ‘big-time drug addict’ according to report](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-elon-musk-drug-addict-feud-b2766051.html)** > > The president was concerned about Musk’s drug use, White House officials say, leading to the explosive end of their relationship ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2460 "2025-06-08T21:06:24Z")
Haven’t there also been reports/rumors about the Trump administration staff eating drugs like candy? People in glasshouses and all that… ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/2461 "2025-06-08T22:01:43Z")
Yeah, three syllables. My ability to write phonetics is limited. He’s a guy. Mee-cgha-ell (where “cgha” is the unfamiliar phoneme) I also have a friend named Ma’or, but at least that is easy to pronounce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=121) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=123)