[ RadSafe ] The "Nucular" debate

[Jim Muckerheide]

We're on the "slippery slope."  A few years ago nucular appeared in some
English dictionaries. See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular

"Merriam-Webster receives enough questions about their inclusion of this
pronunciation in the dictionary that it is one of two pronunciations which
receive particular mention in their FAQ (along with "February")."  See:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/pronounce.htm

Regards, Jim
=============

on 4/3/08 10:54 AM, neildm at id.doe.gov at neildm at id.doe.gov wrote:

> Without specifics, it's hard to be certain, but it sounds like she might
> have been a product/victim of the "whole language" experiment in
> teaching reading.  Words were taught as gestalts or ideographs without
> phonic analysis. Granted, some words have to be approached that way due
> to irregular pronunciation.
> 
> I had a friend who progressed to very low level technical books without
> hearing some of the words pronounced.  Until then, he thought that
> "atom" was pronounced "ay-tom". Given the derivation (Greek for "not
> cut"), it probably should be.
> 
> Dave Neil
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf Of Steven Dapra
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 8:01 PM
> To: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The "Nucular" debate
> 
> April 2
> 
>          Incorrect pronunciations are a matter of flat-out laziness.  I
> met 
> someone once who was too lazy to learn how to pronounce acetominophen,
> or 
> aminophylline.  Her slurred pronunciation of the former sound something
> like "a-see-min-fen."   I can't remember how she pronounced the second
> one.  Teaching people to read by using phonics would solve a lot of
> these 
> pronunciation problems.  (Ever heard a parent or teacher say, "Sound it
> out"?)
> 
> Steven Dapra
> 
> 
> At 11:50 AM 4/2/08 -0500, Doug Aitken wrote:
>> After my last post, I had a look at the internet and found some
> interesting
>> comments on this phenomenon:
>> http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/nucular.html
>> 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular
>> 
>> of course, if you want a really "in-depth" <G> discussion, try this;
>> http://www.languagehat.com/archives/000349.php
>> 
>> now, back to our regularly scheduled programs.....
>> ;~)
>> Doug
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf
>> Of Doug Aitken
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 10:51 AM
>> To: 'J. Marshall Reber'; 'eth_jones'
>> Cc: 'Radsafe'
>> Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] The good news about nuclear destruction
>> 
>> I think the fact that the current President is incapable of pronouncing
>> "Nuclear" (to the extent that all Washington "flacks" and the
> Administration
>> in general seem to now say "nucular" so as not to piss him off) says it
>> all.......
>> 
>> Regards
>> Doug (expat Brit, so not to be taken too seriously <G>)
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Doug Aitken     Cell phone: 713-562-8585
>> QHSE Advisor
>> D&M Operations Support
>> Schlumberger Technology Corporation
>> 300 Schlumberger Drive
>> Sugar Land TX 77030
>> 
>> Home office: 713-797-0919  Home Fax: 713-797-1757
> 
> 
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