Why Can't People Pronounce 'nuclear' Correctly?

[carolegif]

George W Bush started it! He always says 'nucular'. Now it appears everyone on TV is at it. And as for 'controversy', don't even get me started!

[tonyav]

A similar thing with a town not very far from where I live, paddy.
A town called Rugeley, some people pronounce it Rougeley and some pronounce it has Rudgeley.

[horselady]

We had a report on our local news station the other night and the reporter said nucular over and over again, irritated me no end.

[Calibax]

Although I know it doesn't really matter, it is a pet hate of mine that people cannot pronounce "nuclear", "burglar" and "athlete" as two syllables and instead say "nucular", "burgelar" and "athelete".

[Jackdaw33]

Pronunciation of place names is slightly different. Cf Birmingham v Brummijum. It often depends on which side of the river you come. Is it Shrowsbury or Shrewsbury? I don't know.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Speaking of rivers, of course (oh no, didn't mean to say that!), are you a man of Kent or a Kentish man?

VE is happy to confirm that he is silly Sussex.

[bednobs]

how is Nuclear pronounced "correctly"??
i would pronounce it NEW - CLEE - ERR

[Islay]

Took me 6 years to learn English when I moved here it is a very difficult language - I actually learnt German and French quicker. There are still words I find difficult to say much to my husbands amusement. Everyone is different and with respect I think it the only thing wrong is someone saying a word incorrectly what does it matter?

[zebo]

In Yorkshire we visited Harewood House, pronounced Hairwood, the home of the Earl of Harewood, pronounced Harwood. Many of these referred to in this thread are, like this one, regional.

[mushroom25]

not far from here is the spencer family estate, Althorp Park. earl spencer, though, is styled (and pronounced) viscount althrop.

[mikey4444]

In 1994, I spent a few weeks driving across America on Route 66. I met hundreds of Yanks on the trip, and they were evenly divided between those that said root 66 and those that said rowt 66 !

I had a cassette tape with me with Nat King Cole singing " get your kicks on Root 66" When I pointed to some people that how could it be pronounced "rowt" when it was spelt with an e on the end, but they just looked a bit puzzled at that logic !

Wasn't it Shaw that said that England and America are two countries separated by a common language ?

[jno]

I say it the same as you, bednobs, but it's often abbreviated to "nuke" and that makes it tough for people who then say nuke - leer. They end up putting a vowel sound between the two parts.

[jno]

mikey, I've heard Americans (I think from teh east coast but I'm not sure) pronounce the U in buoy. It comes out as booey. On the other hand, a lot of them don't say the H in herb. They're just regional pronunciations, nothing to worry about.

[anaxcrosswords]

Don't know if there's any Pacific reason.

[mikey4444]

jno....I am not worried about it, rather than puzzled.

The word BUOY comes from the same root at BUOYANCY and BUOYANT, but Americans wouldn't say BOOEYENCY or BOOEYANT would they ?

Maybe they do !

[jno]

I don't know, mikey, I've never heard them use the word. But yes, some may. After all, there's nothing amazing about pronouncing a word as written; it's the people who talk as if the U isn't there who are speaking oddly!

[mikey4444]

yes, you are probably right, but its the inconsistency that puzzles me. But BOOEY is just as wrong as BOY isn't it ?

As regards Route 6, Nat King Cole never said ROWT, and after all, he was probably partly responsible for making the road popular in the first place.

[anaxcrosswords]

Incidentally, the etymology of 'nucleus' is based on nux (or nucis) meaning a nut or the kernel of one. In turn, 'nuculeus' leads to nucule, which is the hard seed of a fruit (basically a nut). So you can see where the extra 'u' might come from.
Always puzzled me, though, why words from this root start with the pronunciation 'new-' instead of 'noo-' which, coming from Latin, would make more sense. In Italian, 'u' is 'oo' not 'yoo'.