PSA

[jaina]

Dear government and military officials,

The word you're looking for is NUCLEAR. NUKE-LEE-ER. Not, I repeat, NOT, nook-you-lar. Please learn to pronounce it properly, because you sound like a FUCKING MORON. The fact that you are in charge of anything remotely nuclear-weapon-related when you can't even say it right *terrifies* me.

Jeebus.

Comments

[gmtarkin.livejournal.com]

As per dictionary.com:
Usage Note: The pronunciation (nky-lr), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one. The usual pronunciation of the final two syllables of this word is (-kl-r), but this sequence of sounds is rare in English. Much more common is the similar sequence (-ky-lr), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular.

As a Southerner, I hereby defend each region's right to have local pronounciations. It's a wicked lahge issue. :-)