February 24, 2020

Trump-o-nunciation.


I noticed "the Vestas"...



... and after looking up "vesta" to see if it might be something Indian — as opposed to Roman...



... and figured he must have meant Vedas.
Who really knows?
Who can here proclaim it?
Whence, whence this creation sprang?
Gods came later, after the creation of this universe.

Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute;
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,

He only knows, or perhaps He does not know.

74 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

The clip was off at first, but it's right now, so try it. Just 13 seconds.

gilbar said...

so, a few HUNDRED THOUSAND cheering fans come to see the President of the United States...
And the news report is:
STUPID TRUMP IS SO STUPID THAT HE CAN'T PRONOUNCE HINDI ANY BETTER THAN HE CAN PRONOUNCE ENGLISH!!

MadisonMan said...

@gilbar, yep. TDS to rule them all.

tim maguire said...

That's the best they can do? Make fun of his pronunciation of names that are inherently difficult for a Westerner to pronounce? Is someone really supposed to say, "well, I was on the fence, I mean, sure, the economy's going strong but the tweets...so, anyway, I was drifting towards supporting him, but, damn, if the man can't even pronounce Vivekananda, well, fuck him then!"

Pathetic.

bagoh20 said...

If nuclear war broke out, the press would spend 3 days blaming Trump before they got around to mentioning where it happened.

tcrosse said...

Now do Oconomowoc.

Hippogryph said...

Or maybe he's confused by the Zoroastrian "Avestas". Which are holy texts, like the Vedas.

Shouting Thomas said...

I've been doing yoga for 25 years.

I still can't pronounce the names of some of the poses.

Limited blogger said...


All Indians speak a minimum of 3 languages - Hindi, the national language, English, the accepted language of business, and 3rd they speak a tongue native to the region or 'State' they live in.

So I'm not holding their pronunciation against them.

'Muricans barely can speak the English language.

Ken B said...

I worked in software. Lots of Indians, lots of Indian names. Most non Indians had trouble with pronouncing Indian names. And of course, all the Indians I knew had accents pronouncing western names.

Anonymous said...

How about a compilation of Joe Biden massacring the English language? Oh, that's right, democratic operatives.

wendybar said...

Navy Corpsman

Anonymous said...

Well, on the bright side, I'm pretty sure Trump doesn't think we have 57 states.

clint said...

You that President Trump has done really well when:
A) Democrats try to take credit. (See: USMCA and the economy)
B) The Press finds something trivial to complain about.

Complaining about his pronunciation means they had to skip over finding something offensive in the speech, calling it boring, and claiming that the crowd booed him.

stevew said...

Amy Klobuchar was unavailable for comment.

Being a lifelong Bostonian I say the butchering of other languages and phrases here is a commonplace, daily occurrence. Beloved former Mayor Thomas Menino was a master, may he RIP. Ted Kennedy was pretty good too.

@gilbar has captured the essence of it.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

WTF?! Trump isn't fluent in Hindi?

You never, never let the opposition see your desperation. Not to be sexist, but there's a major Identity in the Prog coalition that simply doesn't get this.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Forlorn hopes might win battles. They don't win wars.

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

Perhaps he confused the Avesta (Persian = Iranian) with the Vedas (Indian).

The Avesta is the religions text of Zoroastrianism, and the Vedas of the earliest form of Hinduism; when the Aryans (this is one case where Aryan is a technical term rather than a crazed Nazi term) arrived in India, their religion was very similar to the standard Indo-European form, the pantheon we see in Greek, Roman, and Norse antiquity, but has changed radically in the several thousand years since.

By the way, the words Iran and Aryan are cognate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Iran

Chuck said...

It’s your blog, Althouse; and of course if it is your wish to treat Trump’s pronunciation problems as mere language amusement and “Trump style,” it’s up to you.

But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump. I happen to think they are right. My prediction now is that by the end of this year, you’ll have a new tag for “Trump health,” or “neurological disease” or something similar. If you’d like me to loan you “Trump Dementia Syndrome” just let me know.

https://www.politicalflare.com/2020/02/trump-sparks-new-health-concerns-after-hes-seen-struggling-to-speak-clearly-at-vegas-rally/

Ann Althouse said...

"But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump. I happen to think they are right."

I wrote about it in November 2005: ""Donald Trump has some kind of neurological event."

LYNNDH said...


The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...
Forlorn hopes might win battles. They don't win wars.

A Sharpes fan?

Seems to me that Bernie is a Forlorn Hope that will not be able to breach the walls of the Electoral College.

Otto said...

One of your commentor's on a post yesterday said the right to vote should be taken away from women. After viewing your posts for last couple of years i am starting to believe he is correct. You never talk about Trump's policies but always about his personality. You are a well-educated women and if you can't separate substance from style, what about other women!

Michael K said...

Poor Chuck. Trying too hard. Watch out you don't have a neurological event.

Howard said...

I can totally relate to this. It used to bug me when I was a young man. Now I'm proud of the fact that I have trouble with words. It's just another sign of being a real man. Like having ADHD and dyslexia color blindness etc

gilbar said...

Our Poor Chuck said...
But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump


And our Beloved (but, in a nice; not naughty way) Professor Althous replied..
I wrote about it in November 2005


hmmm, if something was noticed, back in 2005, and it hasn't gotten ANY worse...
By WHAT Stretch of the Imagination, is it INCREASING?

inquiring minds, want to know?

Fernandinande said...

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No other language comes up.

Matt said...

Sachin Tedulkar's last name is Marathi (I think); his first name is (possibly) Bengali; chaiwallah and sholay are a Hindi words; Veda and Vivekananda are Sanskrit words.

It's hard to believe that even Indians can pronounce all these words "correctly."

tim maguire said...

Chuck said...But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump.

Yes, people who hate Trump with a burning passion and will grasp at any thread in the hopes of finding that magical one that makes his clothes unravel, leaving him standing there naked, see major neurological issues with Trump. But as any sane person knows, they would do better to deal with the neurological issues in themselves before looking to others.

Fernandinande said...

No other language comes up.

Sort of ... but Tamil is also an Indianan lingo:

Searches related to superman movie online
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Hindi/Tamil seem to show up only for superhero-type movies.

John Borell said...

Pretty sure if I tried to say any of the "correct" pronunciations, I'd still botch them.

Too many notes...er...letters.

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dreams said...

"But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump. I happen to think they are right."

Well, he does drive his enemies crazy, even while making America great again.

Fernandinande said...

Oconomowoc.

To’aheedliini, Kiyaa’aanii, To’hajiilee.

Fernandinande said...

Well, he does drive his enemies crazy,

"RUM, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers."

Seeing Red said...

Does the crowd care?

Or did they appreciate the attempt?

I just spent 10 days hearing poorly-constructed sentences by people whose 2nd language is usually English. I didn’t correct them.

For all we know, he could have been practicing and it still went wrong.

I still remember the story my Spanish teacher told us: she kept saying calcetines I think that’s the word, when she meant caliente.

Calcetines is panties.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well...Trump is trying to speak in a foreign language. Words that he probably has never heard spoken**. One that isn't connected to English in any way. Unlike French, German, Italian which have commonalities. Give the guy a break.

If you think it is hard to pronounce words from India, you don't have to go to a foreign country. Go to Oregon and try to pronounce some of the names of cities, rivers and other landmarks. :-D

Chamopoeg
Yachats
Willamette
Sequim
Pyuallup
Even Oregon is often pronounced wrong or wrong enough to label you as a foreigner :-)

** When you only read a word and haven't heard it spoken, you can make some pretty embarrassing mistakes when trying to phonetically work it out.

For years I pronounced the word Armageddon in a very weird way. Fortunately I never had to say it in public until one time I mentioned it in a sentence to my husband. He corrected me and saved me a ton of embarrassing moments.

Seeing Red said...

Marseilles, IL.

Have fun.

I actually have spoken to people who have put the “S” on the end of Illinois.



This stuff is bringing me back to high school. Lolol. Thanks!

Curious George said...

"Chuck said...
But increasingly, others are seeing major neurological issues with Trump...."

Who exactly are these "others", Wehavethemeats?

Chris said...

If Chuck cannot correctly pronounce words and names in Hindi, he's obviously neurologically compromised.

Chuck said...

Chris said...
If Chuck cannot correctly pronounce words and names in Hindi, he's obviously neurologically compromised.


We don't need that advanced testing. We could start with "Chelsea Gabbard." Or "Venezuela." Or "statistics." Or "heroin." Or "Tanzania"... or "Nambia"... or "Nipple" and "Button."

Or, really about a thousand other bizarre/dumb/brain damaged verbal miscues by the Current Occupant.

bagoh20 said...

Trump's stable genius is so powerful that even a "neurological issue" can't slow him down from a Presidential record unsurpassed in modern history, despite the media and Democrats endlessly poking him right in the "neurological issue". Perhaps his "neurological issue" is somehow responsible for his success. I don't know, but other nations are looking at America and saying "I'll have what she's having."

stlcdr said...

How to pronounce 'jamia boy' correctly: 'pedantic asshole'.

stlcdr said...

I'm amused by the pronunciation of Lieutenant and Worcestershire by Americans. Probably because the vast majority of americans are good sports and are actually interested in the cultural differences and don't take everything as an insult (twitter users like this, aka. twits, excepted).

rcocean said...

JFK used to say "Chiner" and "Cuber". But that was OK - cause Liberal Democrat. This is just the standard "Boy those Republicans Sure are Dumb" - which liberals have been pushing ever since Coolidge.

As for Trump mispronouncing Hindi, well "It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all!"

Marc in Eugene said...

For all we know, he could have been practicing and it still went wrong.

Some people have more facility with languages or with certain language types than others. Port Girardeau is a perfectly fine name in Missouri pronounced, one might presume, more or less as if the 'Girardeau' were still French; in fact it's 'Gerardo', with a 'g' as in gemstone or gesture. I wonder if Mr Trump knows this? On the other hand, if he were making a speech there I would think he'd feel obliged to learn how those folks pronounce their city's name and try to replicate that. My presumption is that he gave the Hindi words a few tries in practce and then, pft. Mr Trump doesn't strike me as the sort of man who's going to spend much time in front of a mirror observing himself form words.

I've lived in Oregon for over 20 years at this point and don't think I've ever even heard Chamopoeg or Sequim, much less tried to pronounce them. It's almost always amusing, at work, hearing new Eugenians mangle Willamette; Siletz, too.

rcocean said...

Pyuallup - yes, that always gets butchered. Incredibly large numbers of people can't pronounce Walla Walla correctly either.

rcocean said...

Sequim is in Washington. No?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Sebastopol, Calif, always gets mangled by people who don't live here or are unfamiliar with Russia and that Russia previously occupied that area of Calif.

I've heard it pronounced as Seba-stop-ole. Go ahead and say... San Ysidro

People in Massachusetts can't pronounce the word car properly. Heck, I can't SPELL Massachusetts and have to spell check it every time.

Are we going to pick on everyone's regional accents and unfamiliarity with unusual place names and call mispronouncing words some sort of mental illness? Really?


Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ rcocean oops. My bad. Yes Sequim IS in Washington. /facepalm

JaimeRoberto said...

Whatever. Trump's pronunciation of these words is the best pronunciation. Bigly. All the other pronunciations are losers. Sad.

Marc in Eugene said...

I inferred from DBQ's comment at 1029 that it's in Oregon-- had no idea myself; but, yes, it's in Washington. The author of this pronunciation guide seems fairly confident of himself.

Even Oregon is often pronounced wrong or wrong enough to label you as a foreigner :-)

O ray gun!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Marc

Hubby was born in Eugene. His family history is from immigrants in 1840's settling in the Lorraine/Crow area where there are several roads and a private cemetery named after the various ancestors. Still have family living there on one of the roads near the where the original shack was built in the 1850's

Raised near the Siuslaw (sigh-YEW-slaw) river in and around the Lorriane area.

He says Ore-uh-gun

Chuck said...

Hey, I really should have put this one up before; I think I mentioned it a couple of days ago in the lead up to the Nevada primary...

There is that thing with Nevadans -- they pronounce their state's name as nev-A-duh. (With a flat A; I don't have the tools to do that symbol in this format.) And the WRONG way to pronounce it in their view is as "nev-AH-duh."

This is no big deal; I've pronounced it correctly on occasions, and wrong on other occasions. Most people have. But when you are a politician, asking Nevadans for their votes for president, you have to get it right. And if your handlers are any good, they will tell you, and your Nevada field staff will make sure you get it right.

And so in 2016, that is what happened with candidate Trump. But of course with Trump, he will then talk about it in front of an audience, like he's the smartest guy in the room, so media savvy and with the best staff.

And so what did Trump do? He went and got it exactly wrong, pronouncing to a live audience that he "knows" that it is "Nev-AHH-duh," and so he's the man.

Here's a link on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WisjXBWvo_g

That's some vintage Trump humor. To quote former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, "He's a fucking moron."

Marc in Eugene said...

He says Ore-uh-gun.

As all right-thinking folks do. :-)

I think I mentioned it a couple of days ago in the lead up to the Nevada primary...

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned at least once before.

Nobody I know voted for Mr Trump because he is a consistently skillful and persuasive orator; the rhetoric he employs is not Ciceronian, certainly: nobody disputes this. If there are shibboleths in US political discourse, however, the proper pronunciation of Nevada isn't one of them and, whatever they may be, he seems to have managed a sufficient number of them correctly.

Bilwick said...

You know what word none of the Democratic candidates for president have ever mispronounced? "Liberty." Why? Because if you scan or listen to their statements, it's a word none of them ever use. Can't imagine why.

rcocean said...

I've never heard anyone Nev-A-da. Its always Nev-Ah-da. And no one says "Frisco" either.

Spokane is pronounced Spo-can. Why? I dunno. Omak = O-mack. Pronunciation for Wenatchee will not be provided for free.

BTW, is it Mizz-ore-ee Or Mizz-ore-ah?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

We don't need that advanced testing. We could start with "Chelsea Gabbard." Or "Venezuela." Or "statistics." Or "heroin." Or "Tanzania"... or "Nambia"... or "Nipple" and "Button."

Isn't Trump from Queens?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5p2wxnN6SQ

D 2 said...

Perhaps if I was married to Melania, I would be thinking about our younger salad days, motoring about on that old ‘64 Italian scooter on the hills of Slovenia, looking out with youthful exuberance and confidence to the Adriatic, enjoying the merging blues of the sea and the sky, and the sparkle in her eye, and the birds singing, and the simplicity of a few bottles of wine in the knapsack for the night, and marvelling at the latest jazz on the transistor radio that my uncle lent me, and counting out coins to see if we had enough to get her that fancy red and white silk scarf in the village shop.

Maybe the word Vespa would be on my mind, all the live long day, and I might slip up and conflate a few near sounding V words dealing with eastern religions from time to time, when I’m here and there, on some stage in front of thousands of people, or whatever.

The docs keep trying to tell me that my young man with young girl scooter stories are all fantasy, and are clearly a sign of a deteriorating neurological condition. I tell them - if they were happily married - they could make up their own damned Vespa memories too.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I was unaware that the left thinks that Trump occasionally mispronouncing words is a huge deal until I did some looking around on the web. Its not a good look on them. They remind people of the know it all they had in their class who reminded the teacher if she forgot to assign homework.

stevew said...

Give these a try:

Worcester
Gloucester
Dorchester
Leicester
Wareham
Stoneham
Raynham
Haverhill
Holyoke
Ayer
Peabody

Good luck. If you aren't from around here you are certain to say them wrong, especially the last one.

Jim at said...

Maybe he should've said it in Austrian.

Jim at said...

Or, really about a thousand other bizarre/dumb/brain damaged verbal miscues by the Current Occupant.

Yeah, but I suspect he can pronounce 'asshole' just fine.

SweatBee said...

I'm pretty sure he hasn't yet caught up to GWB in mispronunciations. I remember when that was the proof that Michelle Obama's hug-buddy was an imbecile.

Ken B said...

Scottish name, Ruthven. Pronounced Riven, short I.

Drago said...

LLR-lefty and Sudden-Onset-Socialist Chuck: "Hey, I really should have put this one up before; I think I mentioned it a couple of days ago in the lead up to the Nevada primary..."

I love how you play dumb about your posting that several days ago! It's Reid Hoffman-paid-troll pitch perfect.

It was moronic then and its moronic now.

But hey, I get it. You are compensated by the post and so you have to recycle when you can to optimize revenue.

Good luck with that.

Rosalyn C. said...

When I worked as a substitute teacher I would write my name on the board and ask the class to try and pronounce it. Always got it wrong because it doesn't sound the way it is written. Then I'd call roll and mispronounce their names. They got the point.

Otherwise the class would be in constant ridicule mode.

Meantime the way I see it, Trump is doing rallies practically every day, traveling to huge arenas where he calls out the names of local officials and politicians, people he's never met. How much time does he have to learn the correct pronunciation of everyone? And wouldn't that be a waste of his time? I think so.

How do you think he gets so much done? By knowing what is important and not wasting time on things that are useless, even if that makes him look foolish at times.

Merny11 said...

Someone mentioned Oconomowoc. Other favorite WI names are Kaukauna, Shawano, Weyaweaga, Manitowoc, Waupaca

Skeptical Voter said...

Rush Limbaugh likes to boast that he's got "talent given by God" and he can handle the progressives "with half my brain tied behind my back, just to be fair".

Did I say that Rush likes to boast?

Now Chuck is concerned that Trump is "having some neurological issues". Could it be (to borrow a phrase from El Rushbo) that Trump despite his "neurological issues" and with "half his brain tied behind his back" can still handle the likes of Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi and Crying Chuck Schumer? He does seem to be having a lot of success.

narciso said...

layers of editors

narciso said...

https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1232087367093276674

Gk1 said...

Hah, checking out my google feed and most of the trending stories are how Trump doesn't eat vegetables and will have a hard time finding burgers to his stumbling pronouncing indian names. Sad! But can you blame them? Their home team is having a primary being lead by a moth eaten commie or a dementia patient blessing us with his tales of being locked up with Nelson Mandela.

Gretchen said...

Good lord, Trump is fat, Trump hates veggies, and now Trump doesn't speak Hindi.

Seems like the Indians love him though.

Chuck said...

Althouse; after so many comments on this page, your intended effect with this blog post worked. You got the Trump fans to agree with each of these points:
1. That no normal everyday American can pronounce, or cares much about, the difficult Indian names that Trump was attempting.
2. That therefore, Trump’s mispronunciations are a kind of normalizing.
3. And that only a silly, Trump-hating media mob would ridicule him for this set of mispronunciations.
4. Your ridiculing this instance of Trump criticism allows you to think that you’ve now dealt with Trump’s mispronunciations, and it was much ado about nothing. You have thereby avoided the more serious discussion of Trump’s verbal signs of neurological decline. Not in any inability to pronounce exotic Hindi words, but in Trump’s regular screwing up of standard English words of more than about three syllables. Not to mention Trump’s generalized shrinking vocabulary and bizarre usage.

This post was a particularly slick bit of effective Trump promotion and your Trump fan readers seem to have performed as you hoped.

Blair said...

"Slashin'" Sachin Tendulkar is the Hank Aaron of cricket. One of the greatest batsmen of all time.

Indians will appreciate the mention. They won't care about the pronunciation. And their team just got slaughtered by New Zealand, so it's the least of their worries right now (as a New Zealander, I had to put that in ther...)