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![]() | It is requested that one or more audio files demonstrating correct
pronunciation of this article's title be
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If I remember correctly, Jimmy Carter pronounces it this way, and he's a nucular engineer. -- Zoe
I propose merging and redirecting with nuclear Martin
The last edit by º¡º is about as NPOV as I've seen this article yet, however I'm still not sure "evolution" is the right choice here. Hephaestos 03:05 Mar 10, 2003 (UTC)
What makes M-W think the one U.S. president is educated? ;) -- Tarquin 19:12, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Well he is educated, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's smart. - TheSeez
Were they referring to Dubya, Carter, or someone else by that "at least once U.S. president"? anthony 警告 13:21, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Is it my imagination, or do some people (in the UK at least) talk about "new killer power stations" etc.? No wonder they've become so unpopular. Andy G 20:12, 23 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Why does it just say one president now? Did this turn out to not be true?
"Notable figures who have sometimes used this pronunciation include several Presidents of the United States, including John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush."
~ Resister 00:38, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I personally don't know for a fact that anyone except Dubya used it. If you can provide some cites, we should add this. anthony 警告 13:23, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Here's a cite for Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter using it, from the New York Times: http://www.uwm.edu/~iverson/htmlfiles/nucprolif.htm I'd be shocked if Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton didn't use it, considering their Southern backgrounds. Bill Clinton was notable for using other disapproved Southern constructions in public, such as double modals. ("might could" and the like.)
Go, go Dubbya! Drop your nucular clangers. We love the sound. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.160.86.82 ( talk) 14:03, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
Here's a cite for Bill Clinton using it, written by a linguist and performed on NPR's Fresh Air: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/nucular.html
I'd be surprised if JFK used it, though with his non-rhotic Boston accent he did say "Cuber" for "Cuba," exhibiting the intrusive r characteristic of that acccent.
How about a link to linguistic evolution theories? I don't remember which page it was on, but I'm looking. --Harlan
The first time I ever heard "nucular" (I don't live in the US) was on Mars Attacks, said by Rod Steiger, playing a bellicose American general. I laughed a lot, thinking he was mispronouncing it on purpose. Now I'm not sure he was being intentionally funny. 201.35.228.112 ( talk) 05:07, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
This page used to give so many people so much pleasure in being able to laugh at the Bozo Dunce of the West, aka 'Dubbya'. Couldn't the Nucular Page be reinstated in the interest of world harmony through humour.
Go, Dubbya, go! (Y'all).
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.181.51.91 ( talk) 22:37, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia is not a word usage guide. I suggest we transwiki this to Wiktionary, include a short blurb in nuclear (and I supposed Homer Simpson) if not already there, and then redirect to nuclear. anthony 警告 13:22, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Respectfully, the entire "Nucular" entry should be removed, as it is absurd to add words that are mispronounced as unique entries; if you want to add it as a sub-heading, such as, "common mispronounciations" under the proper "Nuclear" topic, then that's certainly acceptable. Shall we allow "aks" (i.e., "ask") to be added? What about the newly abused word "teh" (i.e., "the")? How about the "z" for "s" words, such as "Girlz"? Do syllabic stress variations warrant separate entries? C'mon, folks! Let's keep it real! -- Skaizun ( talk) 19:48, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, from "cultural information" on, I don't get this at all. Does it use terms of art of postmodern textual analysis or some such? Maybe there should be a link explaining them, in that case. -- Trovatore 30 June 2005 19:33 (UTC)
I think the reason why nuclear becomes nucular is phonotactically motivated.
An analogous reduction of a this disfavoured cluster of stop + two approximants is found in the pronunciation of the word blue: Originally, the vowel of blue was identical to the vowel of cue, approximately [iw]. In most dialects of English, [iw] shifted to [juː]. Theoretically, this would produce **[bljuː]. However, this disfavoured pronunciation was reduced (by ellision) to [bluː]. Note that there are English dialects that preserve the pronunciations [bliw] for blue and [kiw] for cue. (Other languages don't have that constraint, compare Spanish pliegue [ˈpljeɣe].)
Can any English language linguist confirm this or is this just crazy talk of me? -- j. 'mach' wust ˈtʰɔ̝ːk͡x 9 July 2005 16:05 (UTC)
See also [1] (the note of 9th June, 2006).
This is ridiculous, there is no "motivation" behind mispronouncing a word. It merely happens as a byproduct of a lack of knowledge and education, plain and simple. Just like people who say conversate don't make a conscious decision to use a non existent word, they merely hear other ill informed people using it and assume that it's correct because they just don't know any better.
Personally I think this entry needs to go, it provides no real knowledge or substance and will only perpetuate the misconception that it is an acceptable alternative. On top of which, as if it wasn't bad enough, someone reading it might happen across the summary for this discussion and end up adding two more made up words to their vocabulary.
The fact that you don't know the correct spelling of phonetical or perhaps just don't understand the difference between phonetics and phonotactics but are attempting to use them to rationalize misuse of yet another word entirely proves my point...
To exacerbate the public knowledge deficit by attempting to rationalize it while at the same time using made up words like "phonotactical" and "phonotactically" would be supremely ironic, and quite hilarious as well if it wasn't so tragic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Justin Buser ( talk • contribs) 18:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
Agree, this entire section should be eliminated. It's all idle speculation about something that nobody will ever know with certainty. Nobody was there to witness the first mistake, and few can say for sure whether others make it naturally or from example. It's useful in any case to mention metathesis to describe what sort of error it is. Unless another word types the error better. 70.127.17.241 ( talk) 00:33, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
Wow! I can't believe all this hype and nowhere do I see any reference to the US Military use of the term. Likewise, it seems that most inv9olved in the talk must be very very VERY young if they think the alternative -- not incorrect -- pronunciation of nuclear came to rise with the Bush 43 presidency. When I was in the Army in basic training, preparing for the Persian Gulf War, the pronunciation NEW kyu ler was very strongly imposed upon us; we understood that this had been the case for almost as long as the word existed in military conversations. JFK is a prime example of it as well as the other US Presidents that served in the US Armed Forces. (Clinton did not serve, but there are always exceptions.) There are many words that are pronounced differently than in the civilian world. This is due to the fact that radio communication -- among other things -- is not crystal clear. The two common pronunciations of nuclear, the two-syllable NEW-clear and the three-syllable NEW-clee-er contain sounds that can be misconstrued in such a way as to be dangerous. New could also sound like Now or No and Clear and Clee-er can sound like the adjective Clear. With that you can see that via partially distinct radio communication of the standard pronunciation could be heard as "Now clear," just as one example. The three-syllable NEW-kyu-ler runs a much lower risk of being dangerously misconstrued. A couple of other military pronunciation differences that are commonly heard: Tree for the number three; FOE-wer for the number Four, Niner for the number Nine, etc. I think the number Four example is a good one. All over the US -- and I'm sure other English speaking countries as well to some degree -- the number Four is pronounced in many different way, ways that frequently sound like another common word. Some examples: Far and Foe. Where I live we pronounce it Foh, (like Four without the R) but just a few miles down the road in parts of Boston, it's pronounced Foor or FOO-wuh (if you think it's painful to pronounce it that way, it's even more painful to hear it! haha) Just my two cents ... this "mispronunciation" is a long-standing profession-specific alternative pronunciation. 71.192.225.175 ( talk) 22:30, 26 July 2013 (UTC)
So, with the wrong pronunciation given, what actually is the other common pronunciation? -- Abdull 15:05, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
Given the issue with accents and regional dialects, I'm not sure you can say that it's the "correct" way of saying it, so much as the "mid-western neutral" pronunciation. None the less, the pronunciation "strongly encouraged" in Naval Nuclear Power School is the nu-clear one. I don't see colleges endorsing any other pronunciations. Izuko 15:53, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
What makes it authoritative? Is it just preferred according to Professor Wells' wishes? And does a poll of British speakers really matter when it comes to how a word is pronounced in America? Izuko ( talk) 11:40, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
I've always heard "NEW-klee-er" as the "correct" pronunciation, never "Nu-clear" (which I would interpret as "NEW-klir"). Applejuicefool 16:32, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Maybe this fact should be mentioned in the article.
Clearly because that fact might appeal to the type of people who would be anything but disgusted when reading garbage like this in a supposed "Encyclopedia" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Justin Buser ( talk • contribs) 19:00, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
WWN, popular tabloid, had an article about Nucular power as opposed to Nuclear power... is that all right to add? jeti 14:45, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
It may not be appropriate, either in place or time, but I feel compelled to point out that both "nucula" and "nucule" are actual words. (See discussion above.)
Here are the definitions:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nucula
Nu´cu`la
n. 1. (Zool.) A genus of small marine bivalve shells, having a pearly interior.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nucule
Nu´cule (nū´kũl)
n. 1. (Bot.) Same as Nutlet.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nutlet
nut·let Pronunciation (ntlt)
n.
1. A small nut.
2. The stone or pit of certain fruits such as the peach or cherry.
These words are, understandably, somewhat obscure. Thus, while there may be cause for disliking his mispronunciation of "nuclear", if President Bush starts calling something or someone "nuculer" and means it, that's the time to worry... <G>
Dr. Strangelove has a good example of the Southern pronunciation. G.W. Bush's is an invented mispronunciation.
Well, it redirected to Bushism anyway. I actually made the change thinking that "The Decider" might have its own article. There wasn't anything sinister behind the edit. Dubc0724 17:55, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps a less subtle example of The Simpsons' take on "nucular" is when, after Lisa corrects her mispronunciation of "foliage", Marge says "It doesn't take a nucular scientist to pronounce foilage." (Citation: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3G04 The Simpsons Archive) Should this be added? Ash Lightfoot 02:44, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
It would make sense for this article to describe how someone who says "nucular" pronounces related words. Do they say "nuculus" for "nucleus", "nuculation" for "nucleation", etc? (I can't help because I don't know.)
I placed that template on your page just now. The page is witty, to be sure and it's
well written, however, Wikipedia is not a dictionary and therefore entries that define
words cannot be placed in Wikipedia. They CAN however, be placed in Wiktionary!
Thanks!
KoshVorlon
".. We are ALL Kosh..."
20:12, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
I don't think this page is exactly a definition of a word, but an explanation of the issues surrounding that word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.169.147.143 ( talk) 00:51, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
Hello, all.
It's my impression that most Americans who mispronounce (yes, I'll put it that way) nuclear do not insert a "y" ([j]) sound into the word. It's always seemed to me that all they do is break the word up into 'nuc-le-ar' and then transpose the sounds of l and r, resulting in "nucelar" ([ˈnuːkiləɹ]), not "nucular" ([ˈnuːkjələɹ]).
Ever since I got the inkling that some persons thought the mispronunciation involved a [j] sound and might be spelled "nucular" (or, as Jude Law, playing Tony Blair under Pres. Bush's guidance, said on Saturday Night Live, "nuculur", with the last syllable almost rhyming with a careful pronunciation of lure), I've been listening for this [j] sound, this "nucular". In most users of the mispronunciation, I don't hear it; rather, I hear "noo-kee-ler".
Thoughts? President Lethe 03:33, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your reply, samwaltz.
Yes; when I saw the I.P.A. last night, I also thought about the different ways of saying the first u. (I'm an American who actually does say [njuz] (though I still think a better rendering of my pronunciation would be [niuz] or [nɪuz]), &c.) I think many readers and writers are unaware of this common distinction between most BrE and most AmE pronunciation of many us and ews. Also, many times, Wikipedia has instances of attempts to combine R.P. and 'Standard American' pronunciations in a single I.P.A. example, when two would be better.
But to nuclear/"nucular" itself. When there is a [j] sound in the typical American mispronunciation, it does, I think, precede more of an [i] sound than an [u] sound: [ˈnuːkjiləɹ]. Seriously: the only time I've ever heard anyone, of any nationality, put a [u] sound (even if part of a diphthong) between the sounds of c and l has been when Jude Law said [ˈnjuː.kju.luə]—which sounded like nothing I'd heard before from any American, Briton, or Canadian. I think a simple listen to Pres. Bush's, and many another, common mispronunciation will review a medial vowel sound rhyming more with the word ye (of not just the English name of the letter e) than with the word ewe or yew.
Jimmy Carter does NOT pronounce it "nucular", the references given make that clear. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drawn Some ( talk • contribs) 00:26, 18 January 2008 (UTC) President Lethe 22:15, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
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transwikied to
Wiktionary. The article has content that is useful at Wiktionary. Therefore the article can be found at either here or here ( logs 1 logs 2.) Note: This means that the article has been copied to the Wiktionary Transwiki namespace for evaluation and formatting. It does not mean that the article is in the Wiktionary main namespace, or that it has been removed from Wikipedia's. Furthermore, the Wiktionarians might delete the article from Wiktionary if they do not find it to be appropriate for the Wiktionary. Removing this tag will usually trigger CopyToWiktionaryBot to re-transwiki the entry. This article should have been removed from Category:Copy to Wiktionary and should not be re-added there. |
-- CopyToWiktionaryBot ( talk) 16:59, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Sarah Palin uses it in the ABC interview with charles gibson -- 84.173.97.212 ( talk) 11:02, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
Foclear ( fossil fuels + nuclear energy) is also used : http://es.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&meta=vl%3D&fr=yfp-t-501&p=%2Bfoclear&fr2=sp-qrw-orig-top&norw=1 -- Mac ( talk) 14:42, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
The "Steven Pinker has proposed" part of this article remains a little unsatisfactory as long as it remains occult where he proposed such a thing (but I'm amazed that this information is still in the article at all). Does anybody have a reference for it? -- mach ᵗᵃˡᵏ 00:23, 6 December 2008 (UTC)
It is only a minority of Americans who do not pronounce nuclear (and nucleus, from which it is derived) correctly. One hypothesis is that the mispronunciation arises from a weak association with scientific subjects during early education. This could, for example, explain the prominence to which the mispronunciation ascended during the presidency of 'George W. Bush', aka 'Dubbya'.
Most Americans pass through that stage of education with a reasonable grasp of the science surrounding the nucleus of the atom, and go on to correctly pronounce the words relating to it, as is the case in most countries. Unfortunately, Dubbya's prominence on the world stage (sic) introduced the mispronunciation to a sufficiently large number of, presumably, poorly educated listeners to cause undeserved humour at their expense in te eyes of much of the world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.181.51.91 ( talk) 23:01, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
Why do we consider this notable? are we going to have every common misspelling and mis pronunciation its own wikipedia page ?-- RichardMills65 ( talk) 23:56, 29 April 2012 (UTC)
I wholeheartedly agree, but notability isn't even really the problem, to put it bluntly pronouncing the word as nucular is just plain ignorant. To lend credibility to something like this will do nothing but serve to further the spread of that ignorance. Where does it stop? Many people say axe instead of ask, should that get an entry? Should we add conversate too? If anything this entry should be a simple one sentence explanation that it's an improper pronunciation and provide a link to the right page. It's an unfortunate fact that many people are already wary of coming to Wikipedia for knowledge, this kind of thing will certainly will not assuage that feeling of trepidation. — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Justin Buser (
talk •
contribs)
18:01, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
It is articles like this that provide a source of Pythonesque humour about Wikipedia and US-ians.
You Yanks and your very funny, weak "education" in the use of language are a source of great amusement to most of the educated world. If I'm feeling down and want a laugh I only need to turn to the Americanisms in Wikipdia - the closest the US can get to an actual encyclopaedia these days - and I'm splitting my sides with laughter.
Or, as Yanks would say, I'm "laughing my ass off" - not understanding the difference between a donkey / mule (ass) and human buttocks (arse).
You really are a priceless race. It's almost as if God put you on Earth to entertain us. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.118.128.8 ( talk) 20:20, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
When the president says it, that means that it is not wrong. It's called metathetic then. -- 217.226.72.18 ( talk) 11:14, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
“Prescribed” means “advised, recommended”, so how can it be a “prescribed” pronunciation when the rest of the article describes it as a mispronunciation, as considered incorrect etc.? Goochelaar ( talk) 13:11, 2 July 2020 (UTC)