e-Vents

[ Thursday ]

 

Can you say CUTTER ?

Once again, school teachers all over America are backtracking. The news media's coverage of the war in Iraq has brought geography back into the classrooms and the living rooms of our country. There is only one small problem. Some of the countries from which they are reporting have had their names changed...or maybe just mispronounced.

It seems that for the past few years, the country known as Qatar was pronounced as " Kay-Tar' ". Now it is called " Cutter " in the media reports. I don't speak Arabic, but based on the pronunciation of many Middle Eastern and Asian countries in the region, the syllabic emphasis is often a hard consonant on the first syllable of the word. In other words, Qatar might be pronounced as " Ka' - turr". I could be misinformed... But consider other past incidents, in which the English teachers of America had to undo their teachings.

For years, the planet Uranus was taught and pronounced as ' Your anus'. But, apparently, someone in the 1980s decided that it was not socially acceptable to speak that out loud, especially during one of the space missions in which the planet was being mentioned almost daily. So, the pronunciation became " You're a Nuss' (say it quickly). Clever, huh?

When that well-known comet was talked about some forty years ago, many teachers used the same pronunication as a 50s rock and roll band and referred to it as ' Hay Lee's Comet' . When it began to approach the Earth during 1986, scientists referred to it properly as ' Hal-eez' Comet, after Mr. Haley for whom it was named. Major pronunication events like this help add to the generation gap.

Think of some of the blunders made in the past few years. It could have been the name of one of the former Soviet Republics...take your pick (hardly anyone pronounces them correctly). Or maybe a scientific or medical term...can you say otorhinolaryngologist?

It doesn't even have to be something complicated. Take for example some of the better known athletes. When Tony Dorsett was first drafted, he was called Tony 'Dor-sit'. He quickly informed the sports reporters that his name (pronounced 'Dor-sit' for his three collegiate years), was actually "Dor-set' ", because he was 'French'. (I always thought that 'Tony' was a little bit Italian).

People mispronounce words all of the time. Most do it because they heard someone else say it that way. 'Forte' is not "four-tay" in describing someone's strengths; it should be pronounced "fort". Forte (four-tay) is an Italian term used in music. I could cite numerous examples that are like fingernails on a chalk board to my ears.

So, teachers beware...just as historical revisionists run rampant in the country today, so are linguistic revisionists gearing up for their next public relations coup. I can hardly wait...

'Til then...ciao ! ...or is it 'Chooo'.









MM [21:19]