Ok, a bit of a lighter thread for this forum.
Yesterday while watching Bush give a highly unusual solid performance at a televised talk with military families [down to earth and no bravado] a student speaker from the audience stood up to ask the Prez a question.....about "...Eye-raq..... blah blah?"
It was pretty funny when Bush responded; he said Eee-raq and Eee-ran a few times and he put emphasis on the words obviously in an attempt to educate the speaker and others into pronouncing it correctly.

My question is why do alot of Americans like to say Eye-raq and Eye-ran? In the 80s hostage crisis, nobody said Eye-ran - this seems to be a recent 'phenomenom' .... it's like it would be goofy to say, Eye-ndia, or Eye-ndiana. If you don't have an answer let's have a poll to see who here actually says Eye-raq.

At least pronounce it like us Canucks.... Eh-raq, Eh-ran....>joke

I call it Eye-rack and Eye-ron.

Well, I live just down the street from you, eh! And south of Jackman we say ee, ayuh ... but you still can't thea from hea, mista!

Well all I know is that Eye-Rock.

Why is everybody other than me so stupid? It's not pronounced eye or ee. It's pronounced with the short i, as in the "it" or "in". President Bush has a ridiculous Texas accent and couldn't pronounce a word correctly if he was coached for years. He just loves the Texas twang. Dallas people generally don't have that accent (thank God), but there are plenty of east and west Texans in Dallas. Some of my regulars in the bar drive me nuts. The walk in and "Hah, Chreeeyusss!" Aaaarrrggghhh!!! My name should only have 1 syllable, not 2!

I say it your way too...

well I say eyerak, eyeron

in buffalo we pronounce arkansas
rcansass
others say ar(like a pirate)cansaw

I actually got to thinking about this more today ... I was DRIVING, OKAY!! ... and I realized that my buddy Cross of IRON might have the best insight on this. To cite Indiana and India as comparisons is kind of like using Bush's favorite straw man, "some people say." Ain't got nothing to do with the real argument.

I actually listened to myself on that drive as I said EYE RACK and EYE RAN and CROSS OF EYE URN.

But, Bargod is right. Consulting American Heritage Dictionary reveals that Iraq and Iran should be pronounced like "irresponsible" and "irreversible."

You say tomato, I say apple. What's the difference?

We're playing thread tag here pez
Hamma has a good point though;

erm, not that it matters, but remember when Bush Senior was in Office and he pronounced Saddam's name as Sadd-em?

I think that was the building block for a no respect for any middle eastern pronunciation. Well at least those two countries anyway.



I can still hear him pronounce it sadd-em......

LOL, yeah- but I always personally thought his connotation was more along sodom-ize... honestly!

could be. At any rate, I am sure great disrespect was intended.

people from around the world that speak English prononuce words differently,its all to do with the accent and the way you were brought up I.E in the US you say Birming HAM but over here in Uk we say Birming UM.

so which is right ...plus ...does it really matter?.....no-one is right and no-one is wrong.

ok I'm stioll a bit buzzed ftrom here Mr/cRoss http://www.mobclan.com/forums/upload/index...=15#entry101894
I'm not editiong my post since it may be a source of some pety amusementy.
EyeRak is very funny to here, because its nor a spexcific area thjinmg... half the folks in USA sayit correctly but the other haldf know the correct way but don't care anyway t ans say Eyyyerak while someone living next door properkly says EeeeraK!!!!! Blomming ponces dun hald neef/ dun half need to get a clip roun' the eearole.

Mr Hell are looking for a bunch of fives in the mush gezz.....or a swift boot up the harris............J/k

Cor blimey ... wot's wiff the agro, moy son!!! I oughta half hitch yer blooming COD cd... that'd get yer knickerz in a twist

I guess I should get around to practising with yaz, now that I have a brief window of spare time.

Lets face pretty much any1 could give a speech better than Bush. They just wont make it as hilarious.

Actually my point was Bush was going out of his way it seemed to point out to that audience questioner how to properly pronounce EEE-RAQ...lol,

A bouple of good and humorous books on pronunciation are by Charles Elster:

Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations
There Is No Cow in Moscow and Other Beastly Mispronunciations

He addresses the Iraq and and Iran and Bush is right.

Iran = ear-AHN
Iraq = ear-AHK

Now if only someone can get him to correct "nukular."

oops... just saw your post-> nice link