Wordsplash!

Young Author Tackles ADHD

 Blake Taylor is 18 years old. He's just published his first book. For an 18-year-old to publish a book at all is an impressive achievement. What's amazing about Taylor is he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

ADHD is the butt of a lot of jokes. It's one of those conditions that, in many circles, is still "okay" to ridicule. Okay, so I won't get all preachy on you here, but a young author has just proven that people with ADHD have their struggles, but these struggles don't have to limit their productivity.

I have personally been trapped in authoring hell for the last several months -- re-editing my first book for the second edition, and now trying to wrap up my second book. My own attention span wanes on many days. My mind wanders and wants to quit due to sheer mental fatigue. For someone with ADHD to stay focused and write a book about their condition is remarkable. For someone as young as Blake Taylor, it's phenomenal.

---

[Speaking of wandering minds and overworked authors, please excuse my recent absence from this blog. I really have been cramming all of my energy into finishing up my forthcoming book about travel journaling. I'll be back here with more frequent material soon! Meanwhile, tune in next week to my humor and travel blog for your chance to win a free copy of the book when it's out. I'll post a new clue every day as to where in the world I am about to travel. The first person to guess my destination city wins a free copy. I start posting clues on Monday, March 3, 2008.]

Say Where?

I wrote a couple of days ago about how some Nevadans are getting their feathers ruffled over the way outsiders pronounce their state's name. According to the Associated Press, Nevada's state archivist complained that when outsiders pronounce the name of his state differently from native speakers, they are being disrespectful. I listed a few other names of places that many Americans mispronounce. Here are the correct local pronunciations (based on spellings in standard American English):

Melbourne, Australia: Australians pronounce it "Melbun."

Bath, England: Rhymes with the American pronunciation of "moth," not "math."

Hawaii: Has a glottal stop somewhere in those last three vowels.

Spokane, Washington: It's pronounced "spoh-CAN," not "spoh-CANE." (The Indigo Girls mispronounce it in their song, "Hey Kind Friend."

Missouri: Most of us who live in the US know this one if we think about it. But most of us in the north (and probably in Nevada) pronounce the last syllable, "ee," rather than "uh."

New Orleans, Louisiana: A lot of people say New or-LEENZ, Loo-EE-zee-ANN-uh. But a lot of people there say , "New OR-linz, LOO-ZEE-ANN-uh." (And in France, the home of the original Orléans, it's pronounced, "Orr-lay-ohn."

Baltimore, Maryland: I've been told that in many working class neighborhoods, the correct pronunciation is "BALL-mer."

Copenhagen, Denmark: Heh... I get asked about this all the time when working there as a tour guide. Is it Copen-HAY-gen or Copen-HAH-gen? If you're Danish, it's neither. The Danish spelling is "København." How do you spell that phonetically in English? It's impossible. (The closest I can come up with is KÖH-bin-how'n, but if the letters Ø or Ö aren't familiar to you, you'll just have to snuggle up next to a Dane and ask him or her to pronounce their nation's capital for you.)

Kiribati: This series of coral atolls, a strangely independent nation scattered around the Pacific Ocean, is pronounced "KEE-rih-bass." One of those islands, Kirimitati (a.k.a. Christmas Island) is pronounced "KEE-riss-mass." How do you get an "S" sound out of the letters "TI?" Some wacky linguists came up with it a while ago. Think of words in English such as "action," or "election." Add a few swigs of kava as you're coming up with a written language, and there you go!

Paris, France: The French say, "pah-REE."

Oslo, Norway: In Oslo, people say, "OOSH-loo."

Munich, Germany: The Germans spell it München (and pronounce it similarly).

Japan: In Japanese, it's "Nippon."

Moscow: In the Russian alphabet, it's "MOCKBA." Transliterated to the English alphabet, it's spelled and pronounced "Moskva.

...and the list goes on and on... and on... and....

My point: I think the Nevadans who were interviewed for that AP story are being rather cranky. Nobody pronounces every place in the world the way the local residents do. And those who try sound mighty pretentious.

Nevadans Insist: There's Nothing "Odd" About Their Name

The Super Tuesday primaries are just about over... and I promised recently not to get political on this blog, unless language or linguistics are involved. But I need to rewind to a caucus in another state that happened a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, this is old news now. I'm behind in my blogging due to an incredibly busy work schedule and a recent foot injury.)

The Associated Press reports Nevadans were on the rampage recently after news anchors were mispronouncing their state's name. NBC received a flurry of irate calls and e-mails after news anchor Brian Williams botched the pronunciation of "Nevada" on the NBC Nightly News. The AP also reported that ABC commentator George Stephanopoulos was booed last year when he mispronounced the state's name during a presidential candidates' forum last year. And both George W. Bush and John Kerry were scolded for getting it wrong in the 2004 elections.

The correct pronunciation, Nevadans say, is "nuh-VADD-uh," not "nuh-VAH-duh." (In other words, the middle syllable rhymes with "add," not "odd.")

Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha is not taking this lightly, according to the AP. Rocha is complaining that people who mispronounce his state's name are showing inadvertent disrespect.

Really? I wonder how Mr. Rocha would pronounce Melbourne, Bath, Hawaii, Spokane, Missouri, New Orleans, or even Baltimore. And don't get me started on Copenhagen or Kiribati... or Paris, Oslo, Munich, Japan, or Moscow.

When Al Gore came to Madison, Wisconsin, where I was living during the 1992 presidential campaign, he repeatedly pronounced it "WEH-SCONN-sun." His gaffe made the evening news on local television.

I like Nevadans. They're friendly people. And, for the record, I've always used the correct pronunciation of their state. But lighten up, people! We're a nation of many dialects. Nobody's trying to malign you. I still think "neh-VAH-duh" is far less offensive than "nucular."

[Check back Friday morning for the correct'ish pronunciation of the above place names.]