Wordsplash!

Kinda Tough on Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin -- you either love her or hate her. I, a former member of the evil, commie pinko, left-wing-biased media, am voting for Obama. Nevertheless, as the benevolent dictator of a non-political blog about language, I feel a need to rise to Palin's defense for a moment... or at least toss out a question to consider.

CNN's Political Ticker ran an article today that quoted Governor Palin this way:

"It is pertinent, it's important because when you consider Barack Obama's reaction to and explanation to his association there, and without him being clear at all on what he knew and when he knew it, that I think kinda peeks into his ability to tell us the truth on, not only on association but perhaps other things also."

Okay, so that is a very long sentence. I'll leave that issue alone for now. Let's instead zero in on one (or two) words: "Kinda."

One of the first things they pound into your head in Journalism 101 is the importance of quoting people accurately. You don't clean up grammatical gaffes -- for example, if someone says, "I ain't the bad guy," that's how you write it; you don't write, "I'm not the bad guy," even though language purists would argue that "ain't" isn't a word. But things get tricky when you deal with colloquialisms like "kinda," or "gonna."

Many publications' style rules say that in print, you should change "gonna" to "going to," arguing that "gonna" is not actually a word, and that mispronounced words should be spelled correctly.

When I worked as a news anchor for an AM news-talk station that had a format they called "info-tainment," my job was to write and read the news in a way that sounded like real people talk. Instead of saying, "The police arrested a suspect," I was supposed to say things like, "The cops busted a guy." I was supposed to be people's pal who was sitting with them at the breakfast table or riding with them to work. Nevertheless, my bosses scolded me one time for being too casual when I used the word "gonna" rather than "going to." Their argument: "Cops" is a word, but "gonna" isn't.

Love her or hate her, a big part of the image Palin is trying to portray is that of an everyday person, someone who among other things talks like an everyday person.

So the question is this: When she says "kinda," should the press spell it "kinda" or "kind of?" It's technically two words, but most people, when speaking casually, drop the "f" in "of."

So when the media spell the word "kinda," are they being hard on Palin? Or are they helping her (by carrying forth the image she is trying to project)? Are they quoting her accurately or are they misspelling a common colloquialism?

I am guessing that most other political candidates also say "kinda" from time to time, and I am guessing that when they do, it is written, "kind of." I would argue, as much as I dislike and fear Palin, that it's not fair to spell things differently in her case alone.

Which is the more accurate way of quoting someone? I dunno.

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.]

Political Mouthwash

It's 2008, and we all know what that means. It means we have an exciting year ahead of political rhetoric, mud slinging, and CNN using their highly annoying slogan, "the best political team on television" way too many times.

Seriously, CNN, have you ever heard the advice they give students in Journalism 101: "Show, don't tell?" How about if you spend more air time showing us your self-proclaimed superiority, and less time telling us about it?

But I digress.

I'm not going to get political on this blog, unless language or writing-related topics creep into politics. But as I sit here watching the New Hampshire primary results on TV, as I sit here watching Senator John McCain give his victory speech for the Republican race, I am cringing.

I am cringing because for the last eight years, we have endured a president who repeatedly says the word, "nucular." I'm looking forward to a president who knows how to pronounce stuff. Over and over and over in the last 10 minutes, I have heard Senator McCain refer to "Warshington," and it's making me want to warsh his mouth out with soap.

A Whole Nother Common Mistake

“Another” is a strange word. It's really an article and a noun – “an other” –- squished together to make a single article. When you throw an adjective into the mix, it wreaks havoc in spoken English.

It seems that nobody ever writes the word, "nother," but people say it all the time -- things like, “I’ve just created a whole nother word!"

“Nother” is not a word. It should be “a whole other word.”