# Pockistan?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 13, 2001, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438 "2001-09-13T20:41:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gibby701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gibby701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gibby701)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/1 "2001-09-13T20:41:39Z")

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Currently being pronounced Pockistan on CNN. How is Pakistan correctly prounounced in English? I know I am being picky, but…

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**Author:** ![fandango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b5ac83/32.png) [@fandango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fandango)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/2 "2001-09-13T20:46:43Z")

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/Pahk - i - stahn/

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/3 "2001-09-13T20:54:21Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I know I am being picky, but…

Not at all. CNN seems to be letting it’s standards slip.

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**Author:** ![Saxman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Saxman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saxman)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2001, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/4 "2001-09-13T21:01:30Z")

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Indeed, both “a”'s in Pakistan are pronounced as in the word “father”.

(Similarly, the “a” in Iran, Iraq, all the other “-istans” in Central Asia are all, more or less, pronounced the same way.)

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/5 "2001-09-14T14:23:05Z")

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And with the “stan” syllable stressed.

Oh, and it’s not "Eye"raq or "Eye"ran either…  
what a time for AOL/TW to have relieved CNN’s hard-news corps with infotainers…

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pockistan/81438/6 "2001-09-14T14:41:57Z")

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It’s just TV personalities trying to sound different, thinking different sounds smarter.

Examples:

- News anchors develop a heavy Hispanic accent when they say names of Latin American countries.
- The word harassment had always been pronounced ha ras’ ment. Then when sexual harassment became the big issue of the day, they started saying hair’ iss ment. (Betcha people named Harris appriciated that.)
- Hi, Opal.