Why do people say "nucular" instead of "nuclear"? Did they never learn proper pronunciation?

[wcmagumba]

I just watched a short news report from a Utah news channel about a reactor the government is installing in the state being flown in and that is what the reporter said. Seems wrong in my perspective on the English language as I learned it...Doesn't really matter but it irks me. Whine over for now...

[Tasmanian Devil]

1. Guilty as charged!

Yeah, I avoid saying nuclear because ... unless I really think about it in advance ... it comes out nucular. I don't know why, it's just a brain mis-wiring of some sort when I learned the word I guess.

It drives my wife crazy, my kids think it's funny, and I'm slowly getting better at it. But I think it might be another 10 or 20 years before it's natural for me to say it correctly. Maybe there's some exercises I could do

It's about the only thing I have in common with "W" ... he says it wrong most of the time as well.

[iemanja]

2. People pronounce words as they hear them

That is how language is acquired.
When a critical mass pronounces a word a certain way, that becomes the pronunciation.

[PeaceWave]

9. The French have a Ministry of Culture for just this reason.

[dpibel]

3. Jimmy Carter did it, too

Drives me as nuts as it does you, but there you have it.

No idea how it got started.

[Munu]

46. And Jimmy Carter was a nucular engineer in the US Navy!

It's just a dialect difference. I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Jimmy Carter pronounced "nuclear" as "NOO-kyuh-luhr"

I never knew if it was the U.S. Navy nuclear engineer or the Georgia peanut grower talking.

[Easterncedar]

6. Southern style

[Brother Buzz]

8. There's something about the Southern style

I encountered a Georgia mechanical engineer who pronounced oil as one syllable word, but I’ll be damned if I know how he did it.

[Polybius]

15. That's old NY Italian

My dad pronounced oil as earl.

[3catwoman3]

34. My husband's dad, born and raised on "Lon-GUY-land"...

…had an earl boiner (oil burner) in his basement.

[Jersey Devil]

37. My neighbor pronounces oil as "awl"

x

[Skittles]

18. they say ALL

but have no problem pronouncing other OI words (for example, coil doesn't become CALL)

[generalbetrayus]

10. I heard him pronounce it as nookeyur. That lazy southern tongue at work.

[Easterncedar]

5. Don't get me started!

Why has ‘gifted’ replaced ‘given’? When did mitten and gotten become mi’en and gah en? Where did the first N in government disappear to? And the second one in environment?

No, sorry, must stop, breathe, go to sleep. The world has bigger problems. (I will, however, be grinding my teeth over nukyular for a while, too.) good night!

[róisín_dubh]

22. Gifted annoys the hell out of me

Influencer-speak 🤮

[tblue37]

7. Easier for many to pronounce, because the tongue and mouth parts don't have to move as much

or into as difficult configurations.

Try the two different pronunciations next to each other, to see how much more work the proper pronunciation is. And since that is so, there are so many people saying it the wrong way, that people saying "nucular" have their pronunciation pretty consistently reinforced, as well.

[FascismIsDeath]

11. Because there is this concept called "having an accent".

[Skittles]

17. nope

that ain't no accent, that is mispronounced - there is a difference

I know, I live in Texas and not everyone sounds like an idiot.

[róisín_dubh]

23. That has zero to do with accent

It’s pronounced incorrectly.
It’s not like when my mother says “Jennifah” instead of Jennifer, or I say aluminum but Brits say aluminium: that’s a difference in accent (first one) and spelling (second one).

[eShirl]

12. my other pet peeve is when people say "calvary" when they mean "cavalry"

[lamp_shade]

13. supposably, realitor, infastructure, febuary, Don't get me started.

[Easterncedar]

25. Love your tagline, too

[Polybius]

14. Because after a while, pronouncing a certain word differently becomes our trademark

We now know it's pronounced wrong, but since we've been doing it for so long, we're sticking to it.

[Skittles]

16. why do people say JEW-LER-Y instead of JEW-EL-RY

they just say what they hear others say

[Easterncedar]

26. And Reelator instead of realtor!

[hlthe2b]

19. I guess if they hear George W Bush* (and admittedly Jimmy Carter before) say it that way

long enough, it starts to stick. Hell after Bush* Merriam Webster added "nucular" as an alternate pronunciation.

It is among the most jarring mispronunciations for me, though there are others.

Right now it is the attractive woman on the Metamucil commercials with the Golden Retriever ('love the dog) who claims to be a gastroenterologist, yet she pronounces it "gas-tren-tol-ogist"... If I could not pronounce my own medical specialty, I surely would not on tv to show my own ignorance. It is grating as hell to me. Most of the public says "vet-in-air-ee-an" for veterinarian, but I have yet to hear many actual veterinarians drop all the syllables. Go figure.

[tavernier]

27. Drove me nuts every time he did it.

[no_hypocrisy]

20. I believe certain regions in this country have traditional pronounciations.

Warshington instead of Washington

"Pahk yah cah" for "park your car".

"Chow-dah" for chowder

"Nuclar" is just one example.

[Mariana]

43. The OP is about pronouncing it "new kew ler". That isn't regional.

There are people from all over the country (and the world) who mispronounce it that way.

[GreenWave]

21. Sort of like PEWWWlitzer not pullitzer.

The first one was where he lived, the rest ???

[Bettie]

24. It is one of the things I cringe at

every time.

My three sons pronounce it correctly, becasue I made sure they do.

Now, they cringe when others say it wrong as well.

And it irks me as well.

[Dulcinea]

28. Regional pronunciation differences.

Nucular, IN-surance, etc. are all characteristic of Southern speech. Most areas of the nation have something like this. Pittsburgh, where I grew up, has plenty of local words & pronunciations.

[Mariana]

44. It is not regional.

There are people from all over the country - and the world - who mispronounce it that way.

[MichMan]

29. Axe instead of Ask

[Vinca]

30. LOL - that particular mispronunciation has always irked me. Where does the extra "u" come from???

[J_William_Ryan]

31. New Clear

Only two syllables.

[Doodley]

32. I wish people would speak proper.

[valleyrogue]

33. Same reason people use the nonword "anyways" instead of "anyway."

Or misuse "less" when they mean "fewer."
Both of those are pet peeves of mine.

[Jacson6]

35. The same way people say ask as axe. That is what they heard from other people. n/t

[Emile]

36. My dad corrected me when I was a boy. He said, say New Clear.

It worked, lol.

[Johnny2X2X]

38. It's an innocent mispronunciation for most

For Bush, I think he did it to sound more folksy. And today, those on the Right who say it, do so to be anti educated.

Nuclear technology seems complicated and the luddites in the GOP consider anything complicated to be the educated elite. Notice how Trump throws it into speeches often because he had an uncle who was an engineer. It's an appeal to expertise fallacy. "My uncle did this job that you don't understand, so I'm smart..." Trump's uncle was actually an electrical engineer who taught at MIT and did write about nuclear physics and founded a company that worked on nuclear medical technology. His business collapsed when the government cut his funding.

But at its core to this brand of fascists in charge right now, it means, "leave the complicated stuff to us, we get it, and we'll handle it for you. Don't let those educated elite libs tell you how to pronounce words."

[Ilsa]

39. That 'nice-to-have-a-beer-with' equinophobic silver spoon cowboy

named George W Bush who grew up in Texas and wherever his prep school was (and Kennebunkport) said "nukuler" all the time. I suspect he just had lazy speech. It used to drive me crazy.

[Orrex]

41. I believe that Lex Luthor pronounced it that way in Superman IV

Can't recall if he did the same in Superman: The Movie.

[odins folly]

42. Pacifically....

Had a guy who was higher on the food chain than me so I wasn’t about to card him on it, but I told my boss that if he could make up words so could I. I made up “espifically”…
She about spit out a mouthful of coffee during a morning briefing when I said “I’ve been looking at the training numbers by manager and some, espifically, the overnight teams need to do more during down times”….

No one else batted an eye….

[fujiyamasan]

45. One of my good friends pronounces it this way

Yeah, it drives me a bit nuts but I’m not an ass hole to call him out over it. We’re from the Midwest for what it’s worth.