# Pronunciation of Clinton **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 5, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228 "2008-03-05T20:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/1 "2008-03-05T20:24:35Z")
How do you pronounce “Clinton”? I pronounce it CLINT-n. Obama pronounces it CLIN-n, with a glottal stop separating the Ns. How to Hillary and Bill pronounce it? How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/2 "2008-03-05T20:26:01Z")
Clin-tin ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/3 "2008-03-05T20:56:31Z")
[Kodos] CLIN-TON [/Kodos] ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/4 "2008-03-05T20:57:40Z")
**LOO** -zer ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/5 "2008-03-05T21:11:42Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] How about you? [/QUOTE] CLIN-n, with a glottal stop separating the Ns, unless I’m trying to be very clear. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/6 "2008-03-05T21:17:15Z")
Is it “2-pac-istan” or “6-pack-istan”? ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/7 "2008-03-05T21:20:43Z")
Either CLI-in CLIN-n depending on how fast I’m talking. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/8 "2008-03-05T22:00:28Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] Is it “2-pac-istan” or “6-pack-istan”? [/QUOTE] A long time friend of mine is the son of Pakistani immigrants. He’d probably use an Americanized pronunciation like “Pack-istan” if speaking to a non-Pakistani, but would use the traditional pronunciation (which I think is closer to “Pock-istan”) if speaking to a Pakistani or Pakistani-American. And he does this with other names too. E.g., his name is Faisal, which his Pakistani friends all pronounce as something like “Fossel”, even though he introduces himself to non-Pakistanis as “Fy-zle”. So far as I can tell, this is a fairly typical way of doing things. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/9 "2008-03-06T01:20:09Z")
[QUOTE=Paintcharge] [Kodos] CLIN-TON [/Kodos] [/QUOTE] Of course. That’s how I hear it in my head. “I am Clin-ton.” Okay, really: Clin-tin. Or is it Klin? I can’t figure out if Cl and Kl sound the same or not. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/10 "2008-03-06T01:47:34Z")
Depends how fast I’m speaking and how particular I’m being. But then that’s exactly the reasons for when I do or don’t glottal-stop my own surname, too. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/11 "2008-03-07T12:24:46Z")
I would say that an American enunciating the /t/, rather than using the glottal stop, is marked, for one reason or the other. You’d have to see how the same person pronounces Santa Claus, or Santa Monica. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/12 "2008-03-07T12:31:53Z")
I use the glottal stop, ala Obama. I’m from Arkansas originally, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/13 "2008-03-07T15:54:18Z")
Clin-tin. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/14 "2008-03-07T19:11:45Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] I would say that an American enunciating the /t/, rather than using the glottal stop, is marked, for one reason or the other. You’d have to see how the same person pronounces Santa Claus, or Santa Monica. [/QUOTE] Some people might pronounce “Santa” with a silent “t,” but nobody would pronounce it with a glottal stop. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/15 "2008-03-07T21:17:01Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Some people might pronounce “Santa” with a silent “t,” but nobody would pronounce it with a glottal stop. [/QUOTE] Most speakers of AAVE would, woul’n’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/16 "2008-03-07T21:37:17Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] I would say that an American enunciating the /t/, rather than using the glottal stop, is marked, for one reason or the other. You’d have to see how the same person pronounces Santa Claus, or Santa Monica. [/QUOTE] Clin-ton. San-ta. I guess I’m marked. What does that mean? If I heard someone pronounce it “Clin-in”, I would wonder why that person never learned to speak correctly. There’s a ‘t’ there and it clearly is meant to be used. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/17 "2008-03-07T23:10:45Z")
“Going” clearly ends with a “g,” but I don’t think it marks someone as ignorant if they pronounce it as “goin” in everyday speech. If I were giving a formal speech about “Santa Claus” I’d probably pronounce it more carefully than if I were just casually discussing Sana Claus. For me, for some reason, “Clin-in” doesn’t role off the tongue (oh, grow up) as easily as “Clint-in.” I think there’s often a marked difference between the way a person usually pronounces a word in normal speech and the way they answer the question, “How do you pronounce \_\_\_\_\_?” There’s no deliberate falsehood involved, but in one case, it’s a more or less automatic behavior motivated by the desire to communicate meaning, and in the other case it’s a more deliberate, self-conscious act. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/18 "2008-03-07T23:54:12Z")
I had someone ask me to repeat it several times during a conversation, years ago, about Bill Clinton. I had been saying it glottal stop style. In the context of the sentence, it was obvious what I was trying to say, so I think she was just trying to be Enunciation Police, which aggravated me immensely. I thought the Kodos pronunciation would be condescending, and I considered loudly saying “President BlowJob,” but I just repeated it the same way about seven times. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/19 "2008-03-07T23:57:05Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] “Going” clearly ends with a “g,” but I don’t think it marks someone as ignorant if they pronounce it as “goin” in everyday speech. [/QUOTE] There’s always the option to say “go-ingeh,” Forrest Gump style. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228/20 "2008-03-08T01:29:21Z")
Sydney: No glottal stop, clear ‘T’: CLIN-t’n [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-clinton/440228.md?page=2)