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Poll
What is the hardest word to pronounce?
Nuclear 42%
Subliminal 42%
Underestimated 14%
Resonate 0%

Votes: 7

 On The Pronunciation of 'Nuclear'

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Nov 06, 2001
 Comments:
There seems to be some confusion here.
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To pronounce the world "nuclear", all you have to do is say the following two words with no pause in between:

NEW. CLEAR.

NEW. CLEAR.

NEW. CLEAR.

NUCLEAR

To the best of Adequacy.org's knowledge, "NOOK-YOO-LUR" is not a valid pronunciation of any word in the English language (or any other language, for that matter.)

I hope this sets the record straight.


Not quite (none / 0) (#1)
by Mendax Veritas on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 02:32:25 PM PST
Actually, "nuclear" is a three-syllable word, not two-syllable as suggested by the pronunciation "new clear". It should be more like "new Klee urr" (with the emphasis on "new"), although it may be worth noting that, to the best of my knowledge, Paul Klee never painted an urr, and even if he had, he's dead now, so there can't be any new Klee urrs unless some are found that were previously unknown to art historians.


Right (none / 0) (#2)
by seventypercent on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 02:58:50 PM PST
However, the "new clear" example is (I think) pretty easy to remember, and there are those among us who apparently need to have the proper pronunciation broken down for them as simply as is humanly possible. Vocally, there's not a lot of difference between "new-clear" and "new-cle-ar" .. and either one is certainly preferably to "new-kyoo-lur."

--
Red-blooded patriots do not use Linux.

There are also those among us... (none / 0) (#4)
by Anonymous Reader on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 03:29:16 PM PST
who pronounce "clear" with two syllables anyway. Australians, Texans, etc.


Yes, but (5.00 / 1) (#5)
by Mendax Veritas on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 03:38:22 PM PST
my comments were only intended to describe human speech.


 
If you think that is annoying... (none / 0) (#3)
by opalhawk on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 03:22:53 PM PST
Larynx ['lE rInks](for those who know IPA) and in standard: (ler inks)NOT (ler Nicks) the n is after the y. OOhhhh that drives me nuts!

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.


 
Ok (none / 0) (#6)
by zikzak on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 04:37:04 PM PST
But how should I pronounce "nucular"? You know, like nucular bombs and such?


You shouldn't (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous Reader on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 06:45:42 PM PST
However, you can talk about nucula weapons, which probably doesn't mean what you think it does but has a nice inner-city ring to it nonetheless.

-qp


Nucula weapons? (none / 0) (#10)
by zikzak on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 09:59:27 PM PST
You planning on throwing clam shells at people?


No (none / 0) (#11)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Nov 7th, 2001 at 04:44:51 AM PST
I am not planning on doing anything at all. I merely wanted to point out that "nucula weapons" had a nice inner-city ring to it.

Furthermore, throwing clam shells at people is most certainly not the sort of activity that I would plan in advance. Nucula war should be more spontaneous than that.

-qp


 
my... (none / 0) (#7)
by poltroon on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 05:51:24 PM PST
I feel like paying a visit to the libary.


Not here (none / 0) (#9)
by zikzak on Tue Nov 6th, 2001 at 09:36:58 PM PST
Adequacy readers are expected to be above visiting such pedestrian venues. We go to the atheneum.


 
Simple three-syllable explanation (none / 0) (#12)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Nov 7th, 2001 at 08:34:43 PM PST
"Noo Klee Err" <-- this is how it's done

The emphasis is on the second syllable.

"New Clear" is about as correct as "New Q Lerr", which at least has three syllables.


 

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