[CanYoAssDigIt] Fwd: Linguistic Question

BE MORE FUNNY!!!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg@csli.stanford.edu>
Date: Jun 8, 2005 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: Linguistic Question
To: Matt Love <matt.mattlove1@gmail.com>

My guess is that this pronunciation has been
standard in the American military for a long time.

Geoff Nunberg

>Dear Professor Nunberg,
>
>Why do all the announcers on NPR pronounce Guantanamo as
>"G'wantonamo"? It seems to me that in general English speakers in
>this country used to pronounce it correctly. Now it's pronounced
>incorrectly nearly 100% of the time. It makes our public radio
>broadcasters sound like a bunch of hayseeds.
>
>It occurs to me that maybe Caligula started the trend, and rather than
>allowing him to look like an idiot (sort of like how they cut the part
>of his response the other day when he said that the prisoners were
>"disassembling" ­ that is, he says, not telling the truth ­ about
>their treatment) they started pronouncing it the same way as he did.
>
>Or perhaps it is more along the lines of when Claudius started
>pronouncing Saddam Hussein's name "Sad damn" to make it sound like
>sodomy ­ something everybody hates, except those of us that do it. It
>could be that it serves some kind of propaganda function, like "We
>ain't a bunch of pansies like them Spanish speakers, that can't even
>muster a hard 'G' sound. When we say 'Gitmo' it means 'Do it our way
>and git out of our way, or do it your way and git "hit")!'"
>
>I'm depending on you to tell it to me straight.
>
>Your fan,
>Matt Love

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