please re state it.

I love me some kay-suh-dillaz. Pass the whack-a-mole.

You don’t say that out loud!

So Obama is mispronouncing Pakistan in a different way than McCain is mispronouncing Pakistan — and in a way that is less common among Americans.

I’ll make the same basic comment at I made at ultrabrown: first, I don’t care how these two mediocres (the good Senators McCain and Obama) pronounce Pakistan or Taliban. It tells us nothing about governance and there is nothing wrong with using ‘American’ pronunciations for non-American words. I don’t cringe when someone who is from India uses an Indian, or Hinglish, pronunciation for an American word. There is simply nothing wrong with that and I wouldn’t dream of making fun of someone’s pronunciation. That’s kid’s stuff. Second, nucular is a regionalism, and, so what? New Yorkers and Bostonians sound funny to my upper midwest American ears and I don’t assume they are stupid simply because they pronounce things differently, and seriously, no one from Boston ought ever to make fun of pronunciation. Third, I remember a great SM article about Hinglish which I thought very charming. Indians have their own way of pronouncing and using English words, which I absolutely love, and Americans have their own way of pronouncing non-English words. I think there is nothing wrong with either. *I sometimes think the only thread that holds together Sepia Mutiny is :my version of brown is good, middle class white American is bad. Oh, the dreadful bourgeois prononunciations! How embarrassing. How low class! **Yes, I know the Corner at NRO is annoying. Even conservatives tend to agree these days. Calm down. ***The United States of Stupidstan? Seriously? ****Sen. Obama, the lightworker, pronounces Taliban in a very odd way, himself – Tollee-bahn. Is that really the correct pronunciation? Sounds Biden-esque to me.

I think most of what you’re saying here is right on. I’m embarrassed of when I used to make fun of the way that my mother pronounced things, and I don’t like it when other people tell me I pronounce things incorrectly (whether in English or other languages that are mine), and I think it’s obnoxious and in this context, as you point out, frequently classist.

****Sen. Obama, the lightworker, pronounces Taliban in a very odd way, himself – Tollee-bahn. Is that really the correct pronunciation? Sounds Biden-esque to me.

Tolly-bahn sounds odd, but not that far-off. The arabic “t” sound used to spell taalib (student) has a pull to it so taalib would sound more like tthaawlib (tthaawlibahn –> taalibahn –> tolly-bahn). Actually his pronunciation in this case doesn’t sound anymore right than the more-common Tally-ban either.

That said, I’m not sure how it’s pronounced by the actual Taliban. And I’d rather not google that word at work!

Oh, and it’s not cynicism, my slight dislike of both candidates. They seem good men and I may very well be wrong but what exactly have they done during their tenures? Baseball hearings and McCain Feingold and the Annenberg Foundation? We have a lot of problems in our country these days and we have to start asking more of our elected officials. Yes, I will vote and pray that the next President does a better job than the current President. I just think we have to hold their feet to the fire. We’ve let the Washington class get away with a mediocre effort for far too long.

At least Obama would be able to pronounce my name right, speaking of alternate pronunciations…

As far as Taliban, the pronunciation I’ve heard most often on the news is tael – i – bahn (where ae as in apple, and i as in it) – not like Tollybahn. That sounds like a new expressway in Calcutt^H^H^H^H^H^H^Kolkata

and, so what? ask yourself, if Obama had gotten up there and said, “We have to aks ourselves, do we want to change America” , or “Why is president Bush trippin?” would those be washed away with “those are regionalisms”? If a standard is applied, it should be applied across the board.

hmf is baaack.