Why can't people pronounce "nuclear"?

[Lady Whistledown]

Why do so many people say newk-yu-lar?

I've just heard a Southern FM newsreader say newk-yu-lar instead of new-clear.

What is so difficult about this word that so many people can't get their tongues around it?

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Why do so many people say newk-yu-lar?

I've just heard a Southern FM newsreader say newk-yu-lar instead of new-clear.

What is so difficult about this word that so many people can't get their tongues around it?

do you pronounce it new-clear or new-clee-er...?

 

[Nibble]

Because the majority of people ar ethick.Including me.

 

[Mrs Coach]

Spaghetti - Bisqetti still gets my daughter in a twist.

I've got a scratch (instead of itch) really pees me off!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Re: Re: Why can't people pronounce "nuclear"?

do you pronounce it new-clear or new-clee-er...?

I'm sure either would be acceptable, they're more or less the same anyway aren't they?

But definitely not newk-yu-lar

And people who use "pacifically" instead of "specifically". Where are all the English teachers these days...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Re: Re: Why can't people pronounce "nuclear"?

do you pronounce it new-clear or new-clee-er...?

Nu-clee-ar.

I have a colleague who cannot say the word 'specific'. Every time he says it, it comes out 'pacific'. "Well, I've looked through your report, and I can't see any pacific problems"

SPECIFIC you f***ing Scottish retard.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Re: Re: Re: Why can't people pronounce "nuclear"?

Nu-clee-ar.

is that Noo-clee-ar...?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I've got a scratch (instead of itch) really pees me off!

I had a mate who'd ask you to itch her back for her.

"Scratch", I'd say, "You scratch an itch".

"No, I need to itch it"

 

[Titanic]

or as George W Bush says "Noo-killer"

 

[Lady Whistledown]

or as George W Bush says "Noo-killer"

Not to mention his "war on tirrrr"

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Not to mention his "war on tirrrr"

And the fact that he thinks we live on the continent of 'Yurp'

 

[1066gull]

Because they're spastics?

:waytoofar:

 

[Icy Gull]

easy as A to Zee

 

[Lady Whistledown]

And the fact that he thinks we live on the continent of 'Yurp'

I guess we should be grateful that he knows there is a continent called Yurp.

Your average American thinks only exists in National Lampoon's Yurpean Vacation.

 

[Robot Chicken]

Aluminium is a funny word too.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Thickos who pronounce 'nuclear' incorrectly are probably the same illiterates who pronounce the letter H as 'haitch' when anyone with half a brain cell knows it's 'aitch'

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Aluminium is a funny word too.

To be fair to Americans on that one, they pronounce it "a-loo-mi-num" because they spell it differently to us, ie without the extra i.

Aluminum (US)
Aluminium (UK)

I remember something in a Bill Bryson book- probably A Short History Of Nearly Everything- explaining this. I *think* it was because British scientists, back in the days when the world's boffins were busy classifying the elements for the periodic table, wanted it to fit better with the other similar elements, many of which ended -ium.

-Beryllium
-Gallium
-Indium
-Thallium
etc


So they kept the i, or added it in. Whereas the Americans didn't particularly care, so they left it out.

There endeth today's science lesson

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Ah! I've found it...


"the confusion over the word Aluminum/Aluminium spelling arose because of some uncharacteristic indecisiveness on Davy's part. When he first isolated the element in 1808, he called it alumium. For some reason he thought better of that and changed it to
aluminum four years later. Americans dutifully adopted the new term, but many British scientists disliked aluminum, pointing out that it disrupted the -ium pattern established by sodium, calcium and strontium, so they added a vowel and syllable."

Thus, aluminium.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Ah! I've found it...


"the confusion over the word Aluminum/Aluminium spelling arose because of some uncharacteristic indecisiveness on Davy's part. When he first isolated the element in 1808, he called it alumium. For some reason he thought better of that and changed it to
aluminum four years later. Americans dutifully adopted the new term, but many British scientists disliked aluminum, pointing out that it disrupted the -ium pattern established by sodium, calcium and strontium, so they added a vowel and syllable."

Thus, aluminium.

thanks

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Bit like Evert un !!!!!!!