> > There's a very large body of -cular words pulling the pronunciation in
> > that direction, against virtually none that end with a sound like > > -cle-ar. > > > > This makes me wonder: do people who say nucular also say nuculus? > Nuculotide? Enuculated? Nuculons? Nuculic acids? No, not in my considerable experience in the South, because there isn't a tradition of pronouncing those words in a comparable way. Those words never came close to getting the amount of airplay, I expect, with the general public that "nuclear" did. "Nucular" is all I heard growing up in small town Mississippi in the late 50's and early 60's. Everyone said that: my dad, who was an educated newspaper editor, the local college professors, including one who worked on the Manhattan Project, all of my teachers, the local TV new folks; it was the only pronunciation current at least at that time in that region. In Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, the entry for "nuclear"has the following usage note: “Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyə-lər\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, U.S. cabinet members and at least one U.S. president and one vice president. While most common in the U.S., these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers.” None of the other words listed above has such a usage note in my edition. Not to give anyone in particular a break (absolutely!), but the president referred to above was Jimmy Carter; my dictionary was printed in 1986. He was, of course, in the nuclear submarine program and did graduate work in reactor technology and nuclear physics. I have heard him pronounce the word that way myself on TV, although he may have updated his locution in recent years to avoid guilt by association. Stu _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
