The President of the United States [u-NY-ted STAYT-s]

[Chicago1871]

Bush's UN Speech Full of Fone-eh-tick Pronunciations for World Leaders (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/09/bush-speech-has.html)

ABC News' Ann Compton and Jennifer Duck report: Never before has the White House released a draft version of the President's speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly.

But this year, a glimpse of how the President sees his speeches was accidentally placed on the UN website along with the speechwriters' cell phone numbers.

During an afternoon briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said, "there was an error made in trying to make sure that interpreters had what they needed. I don't know how the draft of the speech -- it was not final -- was posted, but it was, and it was taken down."

Perino said it was "not unusual" to include phonetic spellings for various countries in the speech though when asked if the president had a hard time pronouncing some of those country names Perino declined comment saying, "I think that's an offensive question."
Dubya's remarks to the UN General Assembly (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3648416&page=1)
The United States salutes the nations that have recently taken strides toward liberty – including Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan [KEYRgeez-stan], Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a], Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Morocco.
The behavior of the Mugabe [moo-GAHbee] regime is an assault on its people – and an affront to the principles of the Universal Declaration. The United Nations must insist on change In Harare [hah-RAR-ray] – and freedom for the people of Zimbabwe.
We have provided more than two billion dollars in humanitarian and peacekeeping aid. I look forward to attending a Security Council meeting that will focus on Darfur, chaired by French President Sarkozy [sar-KOzee].
This body has been silent on repression by regimes from Havana and Caracas [kah-RAH-kus] to Pyongyang and Tehran – while focusing its criticism excessively on Israel.
I didn't see any "nuclear [nooc-lee-ER]" references, did you?

[Chris M.]

I didn't see any "nuclear [nooc-lee-ER]" references, did you?


That's because he would demand that they spell it "NEW-q-lar."

I certainly can't fault him for this. Even though I can sit here at my desk and pronounce those words without tripping over them, it would be a very different story if I had to give a speech at the UN.

I would be curious to know if this is common among all politicians. I would think it would be if for no other reason than it is easy to get stuck and trip on a word that you know. The phonetic spelling could get you out of a bad situation with only a momentary stumble.

[Dr. Wankler]

I would be curious to know if this is common among all politicians. I would think it would be if for no other reason than it is easy to get stuck and trip on a word that you know. The phonetic spelling could get you out of a bad situation with only a momentary stumble.

True enough, but I would guess that some politicians are more engaged with the world they're working to shape than others are, and that tendency, combined with high literacy skills, would make phonetics unnecessary by the time one reached the podium.

[Chicago1871]

I certainly can't fault him for this. Even though I can sit here at my desk and pronounce those words without tripping over them, it would be a very different story if I had to give a speech at the UN.
I gave a speech in a history class in 8th grade on the breakup of the Soviet republic. I covered every single 'Stan', politicians, and a few other complicated Russian words with no issues. I hadn't gone to Yale or given hundreds of speeches around the world over a six year period. These aren't particularly difficult words either.

Sarkozy? Really?

[Nick_78]

I would be curious to know if this is common among all politicians. I would think it would be if for no other reason than it is easy to get stuck and trip on a word that you know. The phonetic spelling could get you out of a bad situation with only a momentary stumble.

Its common practice and yet another total non-story.

[Chris M.]

I agree that it is a non-story but as long as we have it to play around with . . .

How on earth do you decide to phonetically spell out "Caracas" and then in the same sentence leave dubya on his own to pronounce "Pyongyang?"

:D

[Matt in the Hat]

What's next? Criticizing Bush because he uses a microphone since his voice is not loud enough to fill the general assembly hall?

[Nick_78]

I agree that it is a non-story but as long as we have it to play around with . . .

How on earth do you decide to phonetically spell out "Caracas" and then in the same sentence leave dubya on his own to pronounce "Pyongyang?"

:D

Yeah, I'm kind of confused on that. My knee jerk reaction would be to say the words spelled out are the words he doesn't use as often. But then I see Sarkozy on there so I don't know.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone who has the job of watching his speeches to see which words he usually gets hung up on, and uses that to determine which words need to be spelled out in a speech.

[billreeves]

I agree that it is a non-story but as long as we have it to play around with . . .

How on earth do you decide to phonetically spell out "Caracas" and then in the same sentence leave dubya on his own to pronounce "Pyongyang?"

:D

Because Pyongyang sounds just like it is spelled. Duh. Caracas can have a number of incorrect interpretations -- CAR-akkis, for example. But how do you mispronounce Pyongyang? :D

[Auriaprottu]

What's next? Criticizing Bush because he uses a microphone since his voice is not loud enough to fill the general assembly hall?

If he didn't use a mic, there's be less, not more, criticism. Fewer people would hear his errors.

[Auriaprottu]

I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone who has the job of watching his speeches to see which words he usually gets hung up on, and uses that to determine which words need to be spelled out in a speech.

You misspelled "a hard-working team of thirty linguists"

[Chris M.]

I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone who has the job of watching his speeches . . .


I hope that person gets some sort of hazardous duty bump in their salary.

;)

[Chris M.]

What's next? Criticizing Bush because he uses a microphone since his voice is not loud enough to fill the general assembly hall?

Lighten up Matt. Every president has something that will naturally lead them to be the butt of a joke. Ford and his trip and falls. Clinton with cigars/women. Bush one with lip reading. Reagan with forgetfullness.

Bush is just a plain bad public speaker. If he hadn't caused so much damage with the substance of his presidency, his gaffs would just be kind of cute.

[Matt in the Hat]

Lighten up Matt. Every president has something that will naturally lead them to be the butt of a joke. Ford and his trip and falls. Clinton with cigars/women. Bush one with lip reading. Reagan with forgetfullness.

Bush is just a plain bad public speaker. If he hadn't caused so much damage with the substance of his presidency, his gaffs would just be kind of cute.
BUt he didn't even make a mistake. In fact, it looks like he was trying to avoid making them.

[John Galt]

What's next? Criticizing Bush because he uses a microphone since his voice is not loud enough to fill the general assembly hall?
It's probably one of those microphones where sound only comes out on the right. ;)

[Chris M.]

BUt he didn't even make a mistake. In fact, it looks like he was trying to avoid making them.

That's the funny part. Sarkozy? Come on, that's a little bit funny, no?

I do think this is wide spread. There is no reason you wouldn't write a speech for a teleprompter in this way. Better to have the spellings and not need them than to need them and not have them.

At this point, I'm just having fun with the choices made.

sar-KOzee?

Oh well, I chuckled.

[Matt in the Hat]

That's the funny part. Sarkozy? Come on, that's a little bit funny, no?

I do think this is wide spread. There is no reason you wouldn't write a speech for a teleprompter in this way. Better to have the spellings and not need them than to need them and not have them.

At this point, I'm just having fun with the choices made.

sar-KOzee?

Oh well, I chuckled.
I could see having issues with either sar-KO-zee or sar-ko-ZEE

[Nick_78]

Also keep in mind that from the story it sounds like this was a copy for the interpreters. Its important for both the speaker and the interpreter to be on the same page when it comes to how things are going to be pronounced. I've actually seen an interpreter get hung up because a speaker mispronounced a word. Granted, that is rare since these interpreters are just unbelievable at what they do, but you still want to make their lives as easy as possible.

[PhillyQuakesFan]

If I saw the name for the first time I'd be torn on sar-KO-zee vs sar-KAH-zee

[Belgian guy]

What's next? Criticizing Bush because he uses a microphone since his voice is not loud enough to fill the general assembly hall?

I think it's not unfair to expect that the president of the US knows how to pronounce the name of his French counterpart...