Have you ever seen the episode of the Simpsons where Lisa thinks she's becoming dumb and has a daydream sequence to her life as Ralph's overweight wife who goes to the "liberry" to rent movies for the kids?
Yeah, that's what "liberry" always makes me think of. I don't hear that one too often though.
The nuclear thing, though, I'll be making a followup post about. In my area (South Texas), there's a proposed site for building a nuclear power plant; the company is going to be applying for its license next month and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held its first public forum this week. It's kind of a big deal, and I've heard a lot of people, from lawyers to nuclear engineers, speak on the subject. Which is where the poll comes in, because I'm now firmly convinced that "nucular" IS a southern dialect thing, and not an ignorance thing, and it's interesting to see what other people think.
I think you're right. Though the regions may be more complicated than that; it makes me twitch a bit (of course, so does "ideer"!), but then, my husband and I are from the same state, and we argue over how to pronounce "pecan."
Oh, nucular makes me twitch a bit too -- especially coming out of the mouth of a lawyer who is spearheading a pro-nuke organization called Nuclear Energy for Texans.
But all the same, my recent observations seem to point to this being a dialect thing, as opposed to either ignorant bubba-speak or a conscious choice.
I must ask: puh-CAHN, PEE-can, or another variant?
I make no assumptions UNLESS it's someone who really ought to know better. Like, say, the president. Then I assume he's a moron who could at least get a voice coach to make me feel better.
In Bush's case, I tend to agree -- and I feel that way about his whole accent, really. I'm sure he has some natural twang, but his super-thick drawl makes this Texan raise an eyebrow, given his social and educational background.
I just feel there's a difference between a twang/accent/dialect and reversing the letters/sounds/syllables in a word. It says, to me, that one did not bother to read the word in question. It's a simple mistake, easily fixed. I mean, that's how I perceive it, rather than it being an accent/region/whatever thing. However unfair that may be.
A couple of the linguists down at Language Log peg it as probably deriving from other common words that use the -ular ending (molecular, vernacular), which seems a pretty sound theory to me.
Anyhoo, I think most people would have learned it not from reading but from hearing other people say nucular. I suppose there's an argument for the fact that once you hear it pronounced correctly and see it spelled you should correct yourself; however, I think a lot of people who say "winders" for "windows" probably know how to spell it correctly, too, and I doubt that's going to stop them from using that variant.
I think anyone who pronounces it "nucular" is just copying Homer Simpson. Surely nobody can actually think it's pronounced "nucular"... can they?!
That said, I suppose the adage "each to their own" comes into play - but if everyone spoke and spelt how they wanted then eventually over time we wouldn't be able to communicate properly or efficiently!
Actually, "nucular" has been around since the mid 20th century, and in addition to Dubya, US presidents Eisenhower and Carter were both known to use it. Though technically regarded as incorrect, it's recognized as a variant in many dictionaries, and probably stems from more familiar words that use the -ular ending (vernacular, popular, spectacular, molecular).
It's interesting to me because I've recently been listening to a variety of educated people IN the nuclear field who use the "wrong" pronunciation. I still need to make that follow up post about it...
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Yeah, that's what "liberry" always makes me think of. I don't hear that one too often though.
The nuclear thing, though, I'll be making a followup post about. In my area (South Texas), there's a proposed site for building a nuclear power plant; the company is going to be applying for its license next month and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held its first public forum this week. It's kind of a big deal, and I've heard a lot of people, from lawyers to nuclear engineers, speak on the subject. Which is where the poll comes in, because I'm now firmly convinced that "nucular" IS a southern dialect thing, and not an ignorance thing, and it's interesting to see what other people think.
/ramble
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But all the same, my recent observations seem to point to this being a dialect thing, as opposed to either ignorant bubba-speak or a conscious choice.
I must ask: puh-CAHN, PEE-can, or another variant?
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In Bush's case, I tend to agree -- and I feel that way about his whole accent, really. I'm sure he has some natural twang, but his super-thick drawl makes this Texan raise an eyebrow, given his social and educational background.
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Anyhoo, I think most people would have learned it not from reading but from hearing other people say nucular. I suppose there's an argument for the fact that once you hear it pronounced correctly and see it spelled you should correct yourself; however, I think a lot of people who say "winders" for "windows" probably know how to spell it correctly, too, and I doubt that's going to stop them from using that variant.
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That said, I suppose the adage "each to their own" comes into play - but if everyone spoke and spelt how they wanted then eventually over time we wouldn't be able to communicate properly or efficiently!
Reply
It's interesting to me because I've recently been listening to a variety of educated people IN the nuclear field who use the "wrong" pronunciation. I still need to make that follow up post about it...
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