Monday, February 09, 2009

Pronunciation Questions


1) When did Pakistan change from (PACK-i-stan) to (PAHK-ee-stahn)?

2) Why is Afghanistan still (Af-GAN-i-stan) and not (Ahf-GAHN-ee-stahn)?

3) Didn't I get the memo that all the members of the press corps and the chief executive officer of the executive branch of the federal bureaucracy all seem to have gotten concerning numbers one and two?

4) Is it still OK to say "NOOK-ya-ler"?

5) Does Timothy Geithner (GITE-ner), who pronounces his name according to the German also know how to pronounce "Weimar" (VIE-mar)?

6) And a bonus question not related to pronunciation: Does the Federal government understand that the word "billion" means something different to Americans ($1,000,000,000) as it does those who use British English ($1,000,000,000,000)? We will need to make sure our new billion dollar bills are clearly labeled for when the kiddies go off to the store to buy a candy bar.

2 comments:

Peter said...

I agree. It was almost comical how our leader tried to demonstrate his "correct" diction.

Genuine Lustre said...

Also, pol-i-cee has now been changed to pol-i-say. I think it's more down-home that way.