Thursday, August 31, 2006
ABC's revisited
Seriously, what IS with news readers arbitrarily changing the pronunciation of middle eastern country names? Did you know that Afghanistan is no longer pronounced as Af-gan-i-stan, but should now be enunciated as Af-gahn-i-staaaahn? Or so says CBC. For real, what's up? We've gone from Airrak, to Eerak, to Iraak, from Eeran to Airan, and now they're messing with Afghanistan. Do news services simply feel pressured to consistently come up with new and inventive ways to present information and come to the conclusion that by throwing in a fake accent here and there, or putting emphasis on syllables that have no business calling out for attention, that listeners are more likely to tune in? Cause uh, p.s. it's just annoying. And it sounds stupid.
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4 comments:
Huh?
So u saying u'd prefer the US way of (mis) pronouncing those names?
It was never EYE-ran..it's eeraan
Never af-gani-STAN, but afghani staan (the land of the afghans)
O, well, even the BBC says "Korb bull" for Kabul! Imagine calling George Bush "Ji-orjay Bursh"
Afghanistan is now pronounced GwenSTEfani.
It really doesn't matter how you pronounce them...just be sure to get the newscaster "lazy s" as patented by Shtone Phillipsh on NB-Shee.
"Thish week on Dateline, we uncover the shecretsh behind mishpronunciashun of Middle Eashtern Nationsh namesh."
LOL...it's mostly because most of us don't know any better and can't pronounce for shit. I hate EYE-RAK tho. It's so agrevating!
All I'm askin' for is a little consistency here...I can't seem to shake the feeling that some news reporters want to stand out from the crowd by being known for starting new trends in pronunciation, that have nothing to do with tradition or cultural appreciation and respect.
Although, this could just be my well-earned degree in Journalistic Cynicism talking.
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