The president's critics have a meltdown when he mispronounces "nuclear," but linguists say it's a common way to say it.
By BILL ADAIR
Published March 15, 2004
[Photo: AP]
President Ford’s speechwriters steered him away from using the word “nuclear,” opting for “atomic” instead. President Bush’s speechwriters aren’t under the same restrictions: He used “nuculer” 49 times in speeches in February.
[Times chart]
About 600 Democratic voters gathered in a theater in Manchester, N.H., in January to watch President Bush's State of the Union address. They didn't like what they saw.
They booed Attorney General John Ashcroft and hissed at Vice President Dick Cheney. Every time Bush said a word that sounded like "nu-cu-ler," they shouted a correction.
"It's nuclear!"
Bush's pronunciation of the word has become a flashpoint for his critics. In just three syllables, they hear an aristocratic upbringing, a Texas swagger and a disdain for details.
"I just think it sounds ignorant," says Dave Woodworth, whose Web site, www.nuculer.com likens the president to Homer Simpson.
On the Web site for Generation Woman, an online magazine (www.generationwoman.com) Sharon Wren wrote, "It's especially bad when you're trying to show the world that Saddam Hussein is a dangerous person. Who's going to listen to the evidence when they are too busy giggling over a mispronounced word?"
But linguists and dictionary editors say Bush is just one of millions of people who have difficulty saying it. They theorize that people have trouble because of the unusual way it ends in -clear. People are more accustomed to words ending in -cular, such as "circular" and "particular," and they substitute that sound.
"It's easier for people to say the common form than the rare form," says Joe Pickett, executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionary.
But Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University, believes Bush - a Yale graduate from a wealthy family - knows the correct way but chooses the "Bubba pronunciation" to sound more folksy. Nunberg calls it "faux Bubba."
Lots of people go "nuculer." Presidents Eisenhower, Ford, Carter and Clinton all had difficulty saying the word. Carter's mispronunciation seemed at least partly due to his Southern accent, but it was unusual because he studied nuclear physics in graduate school. Ford had so much trouble that his speechwriters avoided using the word, often substituting "atomic," according to Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., and author of several books on language.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, a Harvard-educated lawyer, has always had difficulty saying the word. He says he gets thrown off by the unusual way it ends with -clear.
"It doesn't pronounce the way it looks," Graham says.
He says he is "trying to be more disciplined" and pronounce it correctly.
Dictionaries include the "nuculer" pronunciation, but they usually note that many people consider it incorrect. Merriam-Webster says it is "in widespread use among educated speakers including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, U.S. Cabinet members, and at least one U.S. president and one vice president."
Comedians and political pundits have long made fun of Bush's tongue-twisting ways. Jacob Weisberg, author of the Bushisms books, has shown how the president creates new words ("misunderestimated"), mangles his grammar ("Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?") and chooses the wrong words ("We ought to make the pie higher.")
Lately, comedians have zeroed in on the president's nuclear habits.
Bill Maher: "For some reason, the two words this president just can't seem to say are "sorry' and "nuclear.' "
David Letterman: "On Meet the Press, President Bush said that Iraq could've had nuculer weapons. Or even worse, nuclear weapons."
The writers of The Simpsons poked fun at the pronunciation years before Bush popularized it. Homer, a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, once corrected someone who used the normal pronunciation.
"New-cu-ler," Homer said. "It's pronounced new-cu-ler."
Woodworth, a utility consultant in Illinois, derides both Bush and Homer on his Web site, which he created to oppose the Iraq war.
"It's not that (Bush) is as stupid as Homer by any stretch," says Woodworth. "But he is happily ignorant. Whenever he says it, it is like he doesn't care."
(Woodworth is also bothered by people who say "Warshington.")
White House spokesman Taylor Gross declined to comment on the president's pronunciation.
Unlike President Ford, Bush does not avoid the word. He used it four times in the State of the Union address and 33 times in a February speech on weapons of mass destruction. He even created a new form of the word: denuclearize.
Richard Lowenberg, an artist who runs a community Web site in Davis, Calif., got so frustrated hearing prominent people say "nuculer" that he compiled a list of 63 of them, including Bush, actors Harrison Ford and Michael Douglas, Florida Sens. Graham and Bill Nelson and comedian Tom Smothers.
Lowenberg, who describes his political affiliation as "benevolent anarchist," says he is especially troubled by the people on the list who work with nuclear power or weapons.
"How do you make decisions about difficult issues if you can't even pronounce the term?" he says.
He first became annoyed at the pronunciation in the mid 1980s. He remembers hearing Walter Mondale use it at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
"It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck," Lowenberg says. "He used the word 16 or 20 times in his acceptance speech - "nuculer, nuculer.' That really concerned me."
Woodworth says Bush's repeated use of the word "shows he is aware. But it's indicative of his presidency. He is a privileged guy, he can do what he wants to do."
Nunberg, whose book of language essays, Going Nucular, will be published this spring, says Bush should know better.
"His father said it right," Nunberg says. "I'm sure (George W.) heard it a lot at the dinner table. Of all dinner tables in America, that's the one you would expect to hear it used."
Donna Jo Napoli, a linguist at Swarthmore College, says Bush is making a common mistake.
"I am not a Bush fan by any stretch," she says. "But this has no reflection on his intelligence. He is doing something that is perfectly ordinary. Anybody with any kind of intelligence can do it."
Linguists say "nuculer" is more common among people from the South and those in the military. Metcalf says many people in the military use it to refer to weapons but use the correct pronunciation for "nuclear family" or "nuclear power."
"Nuculer is a tougher way to say it," says Metcalf, author of Presidential Voices, a book on presidential speech that will be published in July. "It's like you're saying "ain't,' that you are not effete - you are down to earth, you are tough, you are no-nonsense."
