On November 3, 2018 at 15:38, Ernie Gilman said...
I've wondered if, as a challenge, I could get someone who says "noo-kyuh-ler" to mispronounce "unclear" as "un-kyuh-ler," then ask why they can say "clear" if "un" is in front of it, but not if "noo" is in front of it.
You didn't go after the low-hanging fruit of 'nuclear' vs 'nucular'? I'm surprised! I find it a bit odd/misinformed that so many people dumped on George W for his inability to say 'nuclear' when Jimmy Carter says it the same way. The irony WRT Carter is that he was the nuclear officer on a submarine.
That's better spelled joolery. But there's another pronunciation gaffe, too:
A Southern California jeweler has been using the same announcer for their radio ads for at least ten years. About ten years ago I called their corporate offices on the weekend and was able to leave a voice message asking why they advertised Jewry when their product had nothing at all to do with Jewish people. I mentioned that the large group known collectively as "Soviet Jewry" would probably want the word "jewelry" to be pronounced correctly. The announcer was able to say it right for two or three years but just couldn't sustain the pronunciation.
So, I mentioned Emily Litella and you mentioned Soviet Jewry without connecting the two- I guess you weren't a Saturday Night Live viewer. Here she is, in one of her better bits-
[Link: vimeo.com] Well, there's the challenge of upsetting everybody by using a very respectable word that is nearly forbidden these days. See
[Link: washingtonpost.com] for a situation involving the word "niggardly." And if that word offends you, look it up and especially look at its origins. It is a near homonym* for another word, but it's not that word.
First time I heard that word, I was about 15 (in the early-'70s) and didn't know the definition, but derived the meaning from the context. This was from a man who was born before 1900, so his vocabulary was different from what we were taught.
For that matter, today's reading included an article explaining how an invented etymology claims that the word "picnic" had its origin in watching lynchings in the south, even though it derives from a French word from the 1600s. There were objections to a recent event since it was called a picnic. Even after seeing the explanation for why there should be no offense, it was objected to. Someone suggested changing it to "an outing." Good, right? NOPE. Some gay people objected that they didn't want any public outings.
And the beat goes on....
Who are you to forbid someone to be offended by a word, even when they don't know the definition?????????????? :D
