#80523
09/18/2002 12:44 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Here ya go, Dub. Make you a nappointment. president@whitehouse.gov
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#80524
09/18/2002 1:02 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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. When I speak, however, I do think more consciously than when I hit the space bar. Carbohydrate, for instance. I used to pronounce it "carbohydrit" instead of "carbohy-drate". Somebody corrected me. So now when I speak the word carbohydrate, the little speech coach in my brain reminds me to employ the ATE sound instead of the IT one. (Who knows--carbohy'drit' may be an acceptable pronunciation by now. Thus progresses the language in its many-garbed parade of possible sounds.)I agree, WW, that pronouncing a word correctly is a relatively minor habit to fix as opposed to a muscular reflex action like thumbing the space bar or being right or left-handed for that matter (and, BTW, Faldage, one can train themselves, in baseball, to be a switch hitter and to bat with both hands with a modicum of effort  ). I used to pronounce discombobulate as discom-boob-ulate (and I still like the latter better, dammit!  ), but once I learned the error of my mispronunciation I immediately made the correction and have never lapsed back into the "boob" form unless it was intentional, because now I know it's wrong. Ditto hackneyed (pronounced hack-need)...I used to pronounce it hack-neyed as in eye. I think if Bush's error were brought to his attention he could correct it very quickly...but two things come to mind as to why this is not happening. 1. All his kiss-up staff and cronies have never pointed it out to him. 2. They caught it, but to correct it after his fluent use of the incorrect form would just highlight his linguistic foppery and provide fodder for columnists and the late night comics, so they prefer to just leave it alone....political expediency is the only approach these guys know or care about (they don't care about his intellectual stature or the example he sets for school children). Hey...what we could all do is e-mail our favorite columnists (Dave Barry, Leonard Pitts Jr., Richard Cohen, Kathleen Parker, etc.) and point this situation out to them!  Fight fire with fire, I always say! (and be sure to send them the link to this thread! )
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#80525
09/18/2002 1:41 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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I wrote to President Bush, Faldage. This is what I wrote:
Dear President Bush:
Although I realize you have little spare time, I wish you would consider learning to pronounce "nuclear" correctly. When you give your speeches, you consistently mispronounce "nuclear" and your mispronunciation becomes a distraction from the content of your speeches. I have heard various people in your TV audience say that they were so distracted by your mispronunciation of "nuclear" that they couldn't concentrate on content; instead, they were counting the number of times you said 'nucular.'
I realize that people from different parts of the country speak with accents that do affect their pronunciation. However, when a person in your position speaks before audiences, I believe it is advisable to make sure that standard pronunciation is used so that the speaker is understood.
I am en elementary school teacher and I try to make sure that pronunciations I use in class are standard pronunciations. I also have a keen interest in how the language does change--how certain pronunciations that were not standard when I was young have become standard. However, in the case of "nuclear" your own pronunciation, which sounds like "nucular," creates the kind of distraction from content that I do not believe you would want. I am sure you want your audience to focus on your speech content rather than on a perhaps awkward mispronunciation. I write this suggestion respectfully. And, no, I do not believe you would lose one vote because you mispronounce "nuclear," but you would certainly gain some respect for pronouncing correctly an important word.
Best regards,
Theresa Ranson
Spring Run Elementary School
Chesterfield County Schools
Midlothian, VA
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#80526
09/18/2002 1:50 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
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DubyaDubya writes to Dubya. You gotta love it!
TEd
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#80527
09/18/2002 1:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Very good, Dub. I sincerely commend you for this action. I will have no more to say on the matter in this forum.
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#80528
09/18/2002 4:16 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
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4. Mispronunciations are somewhat different from allowances made for accent;
As I have recently learned, history tells us that there are enough examples of how the pronunciation of the English and American Languages developed to prove that this statement is not sufficiently answering the question I posted twice earlier in this thread.
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#80529
09/18/2002 5:05 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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And I repeat... If the mispronouncer doesn't "know better" how long does it take 'til it no longer qualifies as a mispronouciation? [blank stare]Here ya go, moose, er, muse... If someone lives in a dark hollow up in the mountains and the handful of folks he communicates with understand him, and if he doesn't know it's a mispronunciation and none of the other folks know its a mispronunciation and use it back...then it beomes a new word. Enlarging on this scenario, it is increasingly difficult in the modern world to coin a change in usage without the bulk of your listeners knowing it's a mispronunciation. So if everybody starts using nucular, not knowing its incorrect, because their leader chooses that usage, then it becomes a word...but the fly in the ointment is, the rest of the English-speaking world would have to fall in line, too. Since most people are NOT going to start using nucular instead of nuclear, and most people, in this case, are going to know nuclear is the correct pronunciation, then Bush is incorrect and the prospects for nucular becoming the new word for nuclear are almost nil. This, of course, would have to apply on a word to word basis...but I don't see this happening on a large scale anymore. With the influence of the mass media the proper option is always evident. Language is just not as vulnerable to the old verbal "pass the message along" aberrations, anymore. So, musick, when does a mispronunciation become a new word in this modern technological culture?...not likely anymore. Although, in the same respect, the rapidity of new coinage now spreads with lightning-like fury.
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#80530
09/18/2002 9:24 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
You gotta love it!I do. Three cheers for DubDub the direct! Now, what else does Bush say wrong?... 
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#80531
09/18/2002 9:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Why do college presidents never become President of US? Woodrow Wilson was president of
Princeton before he was elected President of US. His pronunciation was probably excellent but
that does not seem to have made him a great president.
Can it be that peerless pronunciation is not predictive of prestigious presindencies?
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#80532
09/18/2002 10:38 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
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Wilson wasn't all that bad a President. Certainly his successor was far worse.
Now, here are two trivia questions:
Who's the only union leader to become President?
Who's the only King to become President?
Both US presidents.
TEd
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#80533
09/18/2002 10:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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I remember Ronald Regan was president of actors' union, can't remember exact name.
A King who became president of US sounds trickier. Gotta ruminate that one.
Edit: A King who could have become President of the US:
William Rufus de Vane King, (1786-1853), 13th VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
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#80534
09/19/2002 10:10 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Who's the only King to become President?
Ooooh! Oooh, ooooh! I know! Pick me! Pick me!
Also the only President never to be elected to nationwide office.. Gerald Ford, né Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
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#80535
09/19/2002 11:06 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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Faldage,
Why did he change his name. Weird.
But so did Clinton.
Sounds like Hollywood.
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#80536
09/19/2002 1:24 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Ford, Gerald R(udolph) (1913- ),
Early Life (((copied from Encarta encyclopedia, then excess deleted)))
Ford was born as Leslie Lynch King, Jr., in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1913 his mother, Dorothy, left her husband (they divorced in 1914) and took her son to live with her parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At a church function, she met Gerald R. Ford, whom she married in 1916. Although he never formally adopted Dorothy's son, Ford gave her child his name-Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. That name became the future president's legal name in 1935.
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#80537
09/19/2002 2:47 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
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Why did he change his name. Weird.
He was worried about the "right-to-life" issue. Lynch King
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#80538
09/19/2002 2:59 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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the "curse" of being smart
Here's a quote from Bush's long-time crony and right-hand man which may point to a calculating dumbing-down of the President's persona:
"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans
-- unless they have too much education and vote Democratic,
which proves there can be too much of a good thing."
Karl Rove, Bush's Chief Strategist and Senior Advisor
It's the old "elitist intellectual" demonization thing...I guess that includes everyone here on this board.
So mebbe they actually advised him to deliberately mispronounce nuclear as nucular. 'Tis possible. Guys like Rove don't let much get past them, exspecially the little details.
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#80539
09/19/2002 4:20 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
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#80540
09/19/2002 4:28 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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exspeciallyYeah...that's the way that Daffy Duck would say it! 
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#80541
09/19/2002 6:03 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
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I wouldn't put it past Daffy Dubya, either. Hey, can someone start a new thread, if there's anything more to say? We are encroaching upon 100 posts...
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#80542
09/19/2002 6:44 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
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I've got it! We've gotta get Dubya to say nucleus...if he says nuculous, we've got 'em!
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