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     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
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Tuesday, October 1, 2002
20:42 - Nucularity
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/nucular.html

(top) link
As an off-and-on student of linguistics and English, I find it the highlight of my week to hear another of Jeff Nunberg's editorials on Fresh Air on NPR. Almost without exception, each one is focused on some foible of the English language that he reveals to have a fascinating history, which he covers in a few concise paragraphs' worth of compelling pop-cultural references and leaves the listener feeling startled to have become so much more practically educated in just a few minutes.

Tonight was a treatise on the word nucular, particularly its popularity with Presidents dating back to Eisenhower-- though naturally it's Dubya who bears the brunt of popular derision for it these days. Nunberg starts off by making the distinction between verbal "typos" and the more psychologically interesting "thinkos", and covers pretty much the whole gamut of speculation about what goes on behind that weird word.

On the face of things, "nucular" is a typo par excellence. People sometimes talk about Bush "stumbling" over the word, as if this were the same kind of articulatory problem that turns February into "febyooary." But nuclear isn't a hard word to pronounce the way February is -- try saying each of them three times fast. Phonetically, in fact, nuclear is pretty much the same as likelier, and nobody's ever gets that one wrong. ("The first outcome was likular than the second"? ) That "nucular" pronunciation is really what linguists call a folk etymology, where the unfamiliar word nuclear is treated as if it had the same suffix as words like molecular and particular. It's the same sort of process that turns lackadaisical into "laxadaisical" and chaise longue into chaise lounge.

That accounts for Eisenhower's mispronunciation of nuclear, back at a time when the word was a new addition to ordinary people's vocabularies. And it's why Homer Simpson says it as "nucular" even today. But it doesn't explain why you still hear "nucular" from people like politicians, military people, and weapons specialists, most of whom obviously know better and have been reminded repeatedly what the correct pronunciation is. The interesting thing is that these people are perfectly capable of saying "nuclear families" or "nuclear medicine." I once asked a weapons specialist at a federal agency about this, and he told me, "Oh, I only say 'nucular' when I'm talking about nukes."

In the mouths of those people, "nucular" is a choice, not an inadvertent mistake -- a thinko, not a typo. I'm not sure exactly what they have in mind by it. Maybe it appeals to them to refer to the weapons in what seems like a folksy and familiar way, or maybe it's a question of asserting their authority -- as if to say, "We're the ones with our fingers on the button, and we'll pronounce the word however we damn well please."

This stuff is great. (I'd love to hear him take on heighth at some point.) While you're at it, if you're so inclined, read the rest of his radio columns. I'm already poking through to see which ones I've missed. This guy's every bit as educational as Bill Bryson, and almost as funny.

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© Brian Tiemann