FYI: Why Does Bush Go "Nucular"? (MSN)

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Here we go again (see below):



My personal initiatve only,



Bjorn Cedervall    bcradsafers@hotmail.com

-----------

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2071155



Why Does Bush Go "Nucular"?

By Kate Taylor

Posted Wednesday, September 18, 2002, at 3:29 PM PT



When speaking about nuclear weapons, George W. Bush invariably pronounces 

the word "nucular." Is this an acceptable pronunciation?



Not really. Changing "nu-clee-ar" into "nu-cu-lar" is an example of what 

linguists call metathesis, which is the switching of two adjacent sounds. 

(Think of it this way: "nook le yer" becomes "nook ye ler.") This switching 

is common in English pronunciation; you might pronounce "iron" as "eye yern" 

rather than "eye ron." Why do people do it? One reason, offered in a usage 

note in the American Heritage Dictionary, is that the "ular" ending is 

extremely common in English, and much more common than "lear." Consider 

particular, circular, spectacular, and many science-related words like 

molecular, ocular, muscular.



Bush isn't the only American president to lose the "nucular" war. In his "On 

Language" column in the New York Times Magazine in May 2001, William Safire 

lamented that, besides Bush, at least three other presidents—Eisenhower, 

Carter, and Clinton—have mangled the word.

In fact, Bush's usage is so common that it appears in at least one 

dictionary. Webster's, by far the most liberal dictionary, includes the 

pronunciation, though with a note identifying it as "a pronunciation variant 

that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be 

questionable or unacceptable." A 1961 Webster's edition was the first to 

include "nucular"; the editors received so many indignant letters that they 

added a usage note in the 1983 version, pointing out its "widespread use 

among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, 

congressmen, U.S. cabinet members, and at least one U.S. president and one 

vice president." They even noted its prominence among "British and Canadian 

speakers."



These days, Webster's sends every reader who fusses about "nucular" a 

defensive, 400-word response letter. Click here to read it.







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