[release][b](CNN)[/b] -- An event as big as a volcano that disrupts transportation around the globe might be expected to have its name added to the English lexicon, perhaps meaning "to cause widespread disruption," an English-language monitor said Tuesday.
"People talk about a 'Krakatau,' right?" said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor, in a telephone interview. He was referring to the 1883 eruption of a volcano in Indonesia that unleashed a tsunami that killed more than 34,000 people.
Payack's Austin-Texas-based monitor analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on culture, with an emphasis on English.
"Tsunami" itself has gained in usage since the 2004 South Asia event that left 245,000 people dead or missing across the region, said Payack.
"When prices collapsed economically, the first thing that they called it was an 'economic tsunami,'" he said.
But what happens when that volcano's name is Eyjafjallajokull, as in the Icelandic volcano whose ash clouds have grounded thousands of flights worldwide?
Payack was not optimistic. "I've never heard anybody pronounce it right yet, and I couldn't even try," he said.
The name pronunciation depends on whom you ask. Here's how a CNN Wire story put it in an editors' note: "AY-yah-FYET-lah-YOH-koot." And this from the Chicago Tribune: "EY-ya-fyat-lah-YOH-kuht."
And this from NPR: "AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul."
However you pronounce it, it's a mouthful that is really three words in Icelandic meaning island mountain glacier.
A Google search finds more than 2.5 million citations for the word. "There are very few words that appear millions of times in print yet can be pronounced by so few," said Payack.
During the 1,400 years of the English language, it has adopted a number of proper names, including cesarian section, named after Julius Caesar, born through a procedure Shakespeare described as "plucked from his mother's womb;" the cardigan sweater, worn by the 7th Earl of Cardigan, who also led the Charge of the Light Brigade; and "shakespearean" for a literary masterpiece, Payack noted.
Whether the world's more than 1.5 billion English speakers will one day wrap their tongues around Eyjafjallajokull is an open question, he said.
"It depends how long the eruption goes," he said. "If this thing goes on, it will undoubtedly be a word, but one of the few in the English dictionary that no English speakers can actually pronounce."
The press officer for Iceland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was expected to be the final arbiter.
But, when startled out of her slumber by a call after midnight and asked for the pronunciation, she punted. "You will need somebody who is wide awake for this," she said, then hung up the phone.[/release]
[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/20/volcano.pronounciation/index.html]source[/url]
I can pronounce it just fine!! :smug:
Mind you, spanish is my primary language, so it probably has something to do with it.
Watch the video in the Source, it's funny as hell :v:
I don't really see why I have to feel the need to pronounce it.
"The volcano in Iceland" usually gets the message across just fine.
[QUOTE=XSarcYX;21488140]I don't really see why I have to feel the need to pronounce it.[/QUOTE]
Yeah I know, but have you tried to pronounce it??
I pronounce it Ay-yah-fyal-la-joh-kuhl in my head, with a soft J.
Didn't expect the random T sounds
[QUOTE=Triumph Forks;21488227]I pronounce it Ay-yah-fyal-la-joh-kuhl in my head, with a soft J.
Didn't expect the random T sounds[/QUOTE]
I pronounce pretty much like that, except for the T at the end... Ay-yah-fya[U]t[/U]-la-joh-[U]kut[/U]
[editline]04:38PM[/editline]
kut <-- sounding like "koot"
Fucking Iceland and their retardedly long and complicated names. :argh:
I didn't even bother trying to pronounce it, I just called it 'the volcano'.
It will forever be known as "That volcano in Iceland"
I can say it, i'm from Finland. It's easy cause we have Ä:s and Ö:s.
[QUOTE=SlayerFin;21488393]I can say it, i'm from Finland. It's easy cause we have Ä:s and Ö:s.[/QUOTE]
You lucky basterd :v:
I have a friend who's studying finnish, and he told me your alphabet is pretty short; like, you guys don't have the W on your alphabet, right??
[editline]04:50PM[/editline]
Same with the Z letter
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;21488455]You lucky basterd :v:
I have a friend who's studying finnish, and he told me your alphabet is pretty short; like, you guys don't have the W on your alphabet, right??
[editline]04:50PM[/editline]
Same with the Z letter[/QUOTE]
We do have them.
[QUOTE=juhana;21488522]We do have them.[/QUOTE]
Crap, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_alphabet]you're right[/url]... oh well :v:
Ok but it says there that you don't use the letter W at all, except "in unestablished loanwords and foreign proper names only", is that correct?
[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;21488455]You lucky basterd :v:
I have a friend who's studying finnish, and he told me your alphabet is pretty short; like, you guys don't have the W on your alphabet, right??
[editline]04:50PM[/editline]
Same with the Z letter[/QUOTE]
We do, but rarely used
EDIT: Why am I always late...
Not really news, but interesting. I completely fail to pronounce it, so I just reference it in my head as "That fucking volcano in Iceland."
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;21489307]Not really news, but interesting.[/QUOTE]
That's why I posted it in the first place, to show how difficult it is for English speakers to pronounce foreign words :P
[editline]05:39PM[/editline]
Particularly, this volcano's name
[editline]05:39PM[/editline]
I insist, after a few tries I managed to pronounce it almost like the icelandic woman does in the vid
The correct way is "eye-yah-fyalla-yoh-kull", right?
That's not hard at all
edit: but I guess I'm wrong, why are there T sounds in it
[QUOTE=Zeke129;21489739]The correct way is "eye-yah-fyalla-yoh-kull", right?
That's not hard at all[/QUOTE]
Yep, it's not really that hard, once you practice a little! To me, it sounds like "eye-yah-[U]fyatla[/U]-yoh-[U]kut[/U]"
So where do the T sounds come from? Which letters are making those?
[QUOTE=Thomo;21489753]Thank god it isn't like vagnasdyavasdavob[/QUOTE]
I think I can pronounce that one just fine as well! :D
[editline]06:03PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Zeke129;21489792]So where do the T sounds come from? Which letters are making those?[/QUOTE]
The LL, sounds like TL (somebody correct me where I'm wrong here)
Written: Fjalla
Pronounced: [I]Fyat-la[/I]
Double check the vid on the source!
We watched a news clip about it one day in science, and the reporter pronounced it "luff-heetlah"
[QUOTE=Zeke129;21489792]So where do the T sounds come from? Which letters are making those?[/QUOTE]
double l = tl
In the video it kind of sounded like she said "ee-yuh-fyutluh-yoh-kut"
Is this correct, Icelandic folks?
[editline]04:06PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=shill le 2nd;21489844]double l = tl[/QUOTE]
silly iceland, "tuh" is for t not l
silly
I'm not really seeing how this is news (that's more of a dig at CNN than the OP).
BREAKING NEWS: My dinner is almost ready.
ehyahfyalayokel
CNN has basically just said fuck all to pronouncing it and simply nicknamed it 'E-15', E for the First Letter, and 15 for the 15 following letters.
ill give you a mouthful
[QUOTE=Jessesmith1;21491203]ill give you a mouthful[/QUOTE]
homo or no homo?
no homo
that's good, I like skim better anyway
but homo is creamier !
[editline]10:18PM[/editline]
and has more fatty acids!
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