spootnik

[Ernest Sjogren]

> It was anti-Soviet propaganda - diminishing the accomplishment by making 
> it sound like it went "putt-putt."

Not that I recall, but I suppose that may have been possible for some.  A 
"u" followed by 2 consonants was usually sounded to rhyme with "but" and 
would have been so pronounced by most people, an aural model lacking.

Ernie Sjogren



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Melissa Smith" <mtsmith02 at YSU.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 5:23 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] spootnik


> It was anti-Soviet propaganda - diminishing the accomplishment by
> making it sound like it went "putt-putt."
>
>
> Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
>
>
>>Valery Belyanin wrote:
>>
>>> Today while awarding medals to American scientists, pres. Obama
>>> pronounced sputnik with [u] as in [but] (he said it twice that way).
>>> Definitely Russians say sputnik with [U] as in [put]. It should be
>>> said [spootnik]. How commons is this mispronunciation in US?
>>
>>It's pretty much the norm, as another poster has said. My English-only
>>dictionaries offer the two short-u pronunciations (putt, put), and some
>>note the Russian pronunciation (boot) as an afterthought.
>>
>>-- 
>>War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
>>--
>>Paul B. Gallagher
>>pbg translations, inc.
>>"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
>>http://pbg-translations.com
>>
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>
> ------------------------------------
> Melissa T. Smith, Professor
> Department of Foreign Languages and
> Literatures
> Youngstown State University
> Youngstown, OH 44555
> Tel: (330)941-3462
>
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