# Why is this word so hard to pronounce correctly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267 "2003-03-18T14:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/21 "2003-03-18T16:16:11Z")
And you are on shaky ground arguing that the spelling makes it “clear”, anyway. If we take the “proper” pronunciation of “nuclear”, shouldn’t “clear” have two syllables? No? Well, then why isn’t it “new kleer”? ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/22 "2003-03-18T16:31:50Z")
So, let me see if I’ve got this down correctly- 1. The problem part of this word appears to be the insertion of a vowel sound between the ‘c’ and ‘l’. 2. This is purported to be a troublesome sound for some dialects, due to the infrequency of its use (thus leading me to believe that clap, clock, cluck, climb, clamber, clip, clop, clonk, clumsy, clasp, clutter, clobber, kleptomaniac and clitoris suffer the same fate). 3. In the end, why even bother, because much like ain’t, this isn’t going away. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/23 "2003-03-18T16:35:16Z")
Now can we do “Febuary”? ---
**Author:** ![Hobie\_the\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e99b99/32.png) [@Hobie\_the\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hobie_the_One)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/24 "2003-03-18T16:35:30Z")
Is there a smiley for sour grapes? I suppose that my question has been answered. Racekarl, I’m still not buying that written language and spoken language are mutually exclusive. At least, I don’t believe that they should be. I suppose that we can close this thread and thanks to all. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/25 "2003-03-18T16:37:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmackFu \* > \*\*And what the hell is up with that y’all stuff? “You all”? That’s not English! > > Mocking dialectics is fun! \*\* “Y’all” is a contraction of “you all”. Not only is it as legitimate as “can’t” or “won’t” ("won’t = “will not”? What’s up with that?), but it’s avoids confusion between the 2nd person singular and the 2nd person plurl. As soon as you yankees figure that out, people will be able to understand you better. - Rucksinator, Georgia born and bred (Perhaps you should try picking on another region 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Hobie\_the\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e99b99/32.png) [@Hobie\_the\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hobie_the_One)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/26 "2003-03-18T16:39:05Z")
Stone me if you must but I actually think y’all is a good idea and I am north of the Mason Dixon line. Use it all the time. Y’all have a great day! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/27 "2003-03-18T18:19:53Z")
I always thought it amusing that Jimmy Carter pronounced it “nuke-u-ler”. After all, he was a nuke-u-ler engineer! ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/28 "2003-03-18T18:27:00Z")
What about “dudn’t” for doesn’t? Where did that come from? Laziness? Y’all need to spend more time in the liberry 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/29 "2003-03-18T18:54:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flypsyde \* > \*\*So, let me see if I’ve got this down correctly- > > 1. The problem part of this word appears to be the insertion of a vowel sound between the ‘c’ and ‘l’. > > 2. This is purported to be a troublesome sound for some dialects, due to the infrequency of its use (thus leading me to believe that clap, clock, cluck, climb, clamber, clip, clop, clonk, clumsy, clasp, clutter, clobber, kleptomaniac and clitoris suffer the same fate). > \*\* I don’t think the consonant cluser /kl/ is a problem in and of itself. I think that there’s an issue with /kl/ coming between two more-or-less equally stressed syllables containing non-neutralized vowels (where neutralization yields schwa). This is an unusual sound pattern in an English word. Sometimes, such words acquire the pronunciations of similarly formed words so as to conform to a prevailing and existing set of analogous sound patterns in English. “Nuclear” pronounced /nu: - kli: - _r/ is pretty much a sui generis in English, as far as sound pattern goes (well, maybe it’s a match with the far rarer medical term “cochlear”). In contrast, the pronunciation /nu: - ky_ - l\*r/ has many English analogs, the most common being “binoculars” and “vascular”. AFAIC, the pronunciation /nu: - ky\* - l\*r/ is _de facto_ correct. _(in the commentary above, the asterisk indicates the neutralized vowel schwa)._ ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/30 "2003-03-18T19:04:56Z")
“Nucular” grates on my ears as much as on everyone else’s. But on the other hand… There used to be a metal called “eye-ron”, and a day of the week called “wed-ness-day”. Now we have something called “eye-urn”, and a day called “wends-day”. Which is right? Much as I hate to admit it, language does evolve. In the words of the poet, > [@](#): > > _And don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin > And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’ > For the loser now will be later to win > For the times they are a-changin’._ ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/31 "2003-03-18T19:19:23Z")
Here’s my hypothesis: “Nuclear” is the root word. When the cold war came on, “nuclear weapons” got shortened to “nukes.” For many years, people were more likely to say/hear the word “nuke” by itself (esp. w/ microwave ovens–“I’m going to nuke dinner”), so it became the de facto new root word. Now, when some folks try to say the old word, “nuclear”, they start with “nuke” and then sort of stutter mentally before adding the “ular” (since, esp. in my mind, you really need to say it as “NEW-clee-ur” with an emphasis on the NEW rather than an emphasis on the NUKE to make pronuciation easy). Add to this a powerful secondary conflation: the ending of the word should be similar to other sorts of science words: molec-ular, cell-ular, jug-ular, etc. I guess we’ll one day be hearing about coch-ular implants for the deaf. Not to mention Shakespeare’s King Ular. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/32 "2003-03-18T19:36:54Z")
Y’all is quite frequently used as 2nd person singular. If you want to avoid confusion, to indicate plural you use “all y’all”. y’all. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/33 "2003-03-18T20:33:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racekarl \* > \*\*Does anyone say “ye” any more? \*\* No-one ever said ‘ye’, it was always “the”. The confusion here is due to early printers using a Y to stand in for an entirely different letter that was a voiced “TH” and looked a bit like a Y. But it was never, ever, pronounced like a y. Just another indication that the written language, which after all is just squiggles on paper and dots on the screen, is in no way the final word in how things should sound. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/34 "2003-03-18T20:33:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Not to mention Shakespeare’s King Ular. Uhar uhar 🙂 It bugs me too. I wonder, do these people say “nuculus” instead of nucleus too? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/35 "2003-03-18T20:38:10Z")
> [@](#): > > No-one ever said ‘ye’, it was always “the”. The confusion here is due to early printers using a Y to stand in for an entirely different letter that was a voiced “TH” and looked a bit like a Y. I was going to make just that point, but then people did say “ye”, pronounced with a “y”, as a form of “you”. An example of this is the carol “God rest ye merry, gentlemen”. You’re quite right about “ye” for “the”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/36 "2003-03-18T20:40:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hobie the One \* > \*\* > > Racekarl, I’m still not buying that written language and spoken language are mutually exclusive. At least, I don’t believe that they should be. > > \*\* I don’t think that’s what Racekarl said. They’re not mutually exclusive–written language is an attempt to record spoken language, not a formula for determining how spoken language should be pronounced. So using written language to “prove” that a spoken word ought to sound a particular way is doing it backwards. Standardized spelling makes it harder to see that. If this were three hundred years ago, we’d all spell the word whichever way we said it and leave it at that. Standardizing the spelling has frozen the recording at the point it was made, but the changes in spoken language still go on the way they always have. The writing is still a recording of the language at a particular place and time, not the source for the language itself. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/37 "2003-03-18T20:43:19Z")
I think **toadspittle** ’s hypothesis is excellent, particularly for its specific predictive value (“cochular”), and I shall be stealing it forthwith. I like to say it this way: Grammar is the way the language was spoken yesterday. “Nauseous” used to mean “causing nausea.” Now it means “nauseated.” “Penultimate” currently means “next-to-last.” Due to current misuse, in twenty years it will be synonymous with “ultimate.” Just the way the language works. Weep, gnash your teeth, rend your garments as you will, but that’s the way it happens. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/38 "2003-03-18T20:46:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by toadspittle \* > \*\*Here’s my hypothesis: > > “Nuclear” is the root word. When the cold war came on, “nuclear weapons” got shortened to “nukes.” For many years, people were more likely to say/hear the word “nuke” by itself (esp. w/ microwave ovens–“I’m going to nuke dinner”), so it became the de facto new root word.\*\* Nope. You must be a young’un. “Nukes” and “nuke” weren’t common slang terms until the 1970s and 1980s. But people – even educated people like President Eisenhower and President Carter – have been saying noo-kuh-ler or noo-kyuh-ler much longer than that. I’m old enough to know. And I agree with **racekarl** , spelling and pronunciation are often only ships passing in the night. One does not necessarily determine the other. When two vocal consonants are adjacent to each other, such as _c_ and _r_ in the word _crush_, the simple act of pronouncing a consonant distinctly, brings with it a vowel sound. Emphasize the first word of this sentence: “_Crush_ that can.” You probably said something more like, “_Kuh-rush_ that can.” Likewise, the _cl_ combination in _nuclear_ is also just as likely to be pronounced _kuh-luh_ as it is _kluh_. _Knight_ used to be pronounced _kuh-nyt_. ---
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/39 "2003-03-18T20:51:15Z")
Ever hear a hip hop artist pronounce the word “Street”? How many H’s are in that word? What really gets me is how advertisements celebrate _Mam_orial Day… ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267/40 "2003-03-18T21:00:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > \*\*It bugs me too. I wonder, do these people say “nuculus” instead of nucleus too? \*\* Some of them do. Man, the rate people are changing words, we’d better watch out or we’ll have another Great Vowel Movement. Uh, Shift. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-this-word-so-hard-to-pronounce-correctly/162267.md?page=3)