Oral Surgery

 

Flirtatious: "Howdy! Can I show you around the "nuculus" of our ranch here!"

Read Mood: Fun seeking

Prediction: `George W will never give in and say nuclear correctly.

 

 

Some quick, yet deep meaningful thoughts for your cerebral consideration.

On our President's pronunciation of NUCLEAR: I can't imagine there is one of us who hasn't uttered, "Why can't he say that right? It's not NOOK CUE LEHR."

But I would also venture that very few of us stop to cogitate on the anomoly, nor be able to determine it's etiology, and/or have a deep desire to correct what in some contexts may be a malaprop. In other normal world words, "That's weird how he says nuclear. I wonder why? Oh, well. I really don't care that much."  

But I'm going to attack all of those challenges.  You would think that if any Chief Executive of the Free World would stoop to a mispronunciation of the word "nuclear," it would be Jimmy Carter. He still employees that rich Georgian dialect in public speech. But let's remember that Jimmy had a degree in Nuclear Physics which no doubt included some remedial work on identifying his field. He also commanded a Nuclear submarine. The motivation to say it right was there.

George, on the other hand, faces not just a Texas influence, but the New England overtones from time spent in Maine. And the lax academic standards at Yale may have had an influence. And you don't want to walk about sounding fancy if you are in the reserves. And let's face it. He comes from the seed of a man who often bumped his head getting in and out of Air Force one.  And dad is the President who to this day calls "SUH DAHM HOO SEHN" "SUH DAMN HOO SEHN." Some days I think it's on purpose. Some days I don't.

These are all potential reasons for this oral malfeasance, but I've recently noticed what I believe to be the real issue. Last night I heard our President pronounce the word REMNANT. I only know that's the word he was pronouncing because of the context of his sentence. Think about it and this will not surprise you. George can not say REHM NAHNT.  He needs to put something in the middle of the two middle consonant sounds. So to President Bush the word is said, REHM UH NUHNT. I'm going to make an educated guess and say that all that time spent with cattle (ruminants) may have had an influence.  But if we take the words "Nuclear and Remnant" and place them next to each other we see a clear trend. This man, conscious or unconscious, does not believe you can blurt out two consonant sounds together in the middle of a word, without putting a vowel sound in between. Could it be that simple?

If so I know of  two possible solutions. One we allow the President to drop down into street English and use the word "Nuke," or the prhase "left over" to express himself. Or, as in the tradition  of Castillian Spanish lets all just start being politely respectful and follow his lead. Let's all start saying, "NOOK CUE LEHR," and "REHM UH NUNT."

Barbara would be very proud of her boy if we did.