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From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Pet Peeves (really pronunciation of "nuclear")
Message-ID: <750@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 01:23:36 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.750
Posted: Mon Nov 18 01:23:36 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Nov-85 03:57:42 EST
References: <747@cyb-eng.UUCP> <1900005@datacube.UUCP>
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 46

> In article <644@spar.UUCP> ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes:
> >>How about "nuclear" pronounced "noo-que-lur", as if spelled "noocuulur"?
> >> - David Schachter
> 
> >     Phonetically, this is a simple swapping of two adjacent consonants:
> >	nuclear /nuwkl0y0r/	 vs 	nucular? /nuwky0l0r/
> 
> This isn't the case.  The "correct" pronunciation of "nuclear" not
> /nuwklOyOr/, which has the only accent on the first syllable, but
> instead it is /nuwkliyOr/, with the accent on the second syllable
> (the one in question) and the [liy] sounds clearly enunciated.

I have never heard "nuclear" pronounced with the accent on the second syllable,
and none of the dictionaries I just looked in (including Webster's 2nd and
Chamber's Etymological English Dictionary) list it even as an alternate
pronunciation.

> 
> I think that the reasons this particular example bothers people are:
>     1.  It is (supposedly) only pronounced /nuwkyOlOr/ by uneducated
> 	people, and these are a large group of the people who form
> 	the "anti-nukes" groups.  (Before sending flames, please read on.
> 	I'll get back to this.)
> 
> Item 1 seems to mean that the people who don't know anything
> about nuclear engineering and nuclear technology are trying
> to make the decisions about policy -- a no-good way of doing
> business.
> Tim (radzy) Radzykewycz, The Incredible Radical Cabbage

Jimmy Carter pronounces the word incorrectly.  Before he was governor of
Georgia he was a nuclear engineer.  You'd think he would know better, but
all this proves is that he knows more about building nuclear power plants
than he does about pronouncing English.

I had not noticed that more anti-nuke people than pro-nuke people mispronounce
the word "nuclear", nor had I ever heard or read anyone complain that anti-
nuke people show their ignorance of the issues by not bothering to learn how
to pronounce the word.  Tim, can you substantiate your claim?  Or is it just
a prejudice of yours?
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

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