I wonder if that's just the way Hackman says it and if anyone tried to get him to say it correctly, or were they happy to have him say it incorrectly to make the character look like a fool?
It always irritates me immensely when supposedly intelligent people butcher that quite simple word.
...then whoa, differences...
bill clinton -- as president -- pronounced it as "nucular" long before george w. bush did the same. yet apparently only bush can be criticized for it.
all languages evolve, and there's a great reason why "nucular" and "nuclear" are both widely excepted: the slang term "nuke" supports both.
I think you mean "accepted", as the exception to the proper use of the word is "nuke-ya-ler".
share'Nucular' is widely accepted but it shouldn't be. It's plainly and glaringly wrong. It's no better than people saying 'chimbley', or 'ecscape'.
'Nuke' being slang for nuclear is irrelevant, that doesn't in any way excuse 'nucular'.
...then whoa, differences...
>>'Nucular' is widely accepted but it shouldn't be. It's plainly and glaringly wrong.<<
No different than the accepted "libary", "Febuary" (or "Feburary"), "comfertble", "Artic" and "probly", which a vast majority of Presidents, politicians, NEWCASTERS etc use. (Yet Bush 2 got hammered for 'nucular')
People misunderestimated him.
shareNone of those should be acceptable. Just because there are examples of widespread mispronunciations of certain words, doesn't mean they should all be okay.
The word "ain't" is in widespread conversational use, but that doesn't mean that newscasters or journalists should just throw it around or use it in news articles.
One that drives me nuts is "furmiliar" for familiar. You wouldn't say, "here's my mom, my dad and the rest of my furmily." Why the hell would anyone say "furmiliar"? But they do. A lot.
that just an accent surely (texas?) they think they saying family.
Fun Fact: "ain't" is a particularly bad choice for you to use as an example. It started life as a perfectly acceptable word (found in Dickens, and plenty of his contemporaries). The reason it fell out of favor has more to do with classist pettifoggery than anything else. It's a perfectly reasonable contraction of "am not" that social snobs drove out of the popular lexicon.
As with all things linguistic, usage drives all. Consensus defines acceptable standard, and the world marches on. . .
another one I hate: "inneresting" for interesting.
shareJimmy Carter, another president AND a former NUCLEAR engineer with the navy, says, “nucular.”
I think we’re stuck with it as a legitimate alternative
Ya, I get it. Hackman also mangles Lipizzaner, pronouncing it as though it were spelled Lipanzzaner. Its not Gene; there is no second 'n'. Anyone else hear it?
shareHa, I (and I suspect most others) would have no idea how that would be spelled/pronounced anyway so I guess he almost got away with it. Good catch.
...then whoa, differences...
Drives me nuts, too! "Lipanzzaner". Egads!!
shareMany mispronounce that word.
Many more (including most Predidents) mispronounce Arctic, library, February, sherbet, mischievous and a host of others.
My favorite is that Brett Favre doesn’t even know how to pronounce his own surname.
People made fun of Bush for his pronunciation of nuclear is the same as Einstein's.
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