George Bush Hooked on Phonics at U.N. (that's YOO-en) (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I don't get it.  You say, right up front: " It's not unusual for public
speakers to mark up their text with cues to aid their delivery", and
then spend the rest of your essay berating the president for doing just
that.

Also, if you are saying that prarie oysters and turd blossoms are
synonymous, I believe you are wrong.







> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dennis Baron
> Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 2:42 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: George Bush Hooked on Phonics at U.N. (that's YOO-en)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU>
> Subject:      George Bush Hooked on Phonics at U.N. (that's YOO-en)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> There's a new post on
> the Web of Language:
>
> George Bush Hooked on Phonics at U.N. (that's YOO-en)
>
> George W. Bush had no trouble naming names when he berated
> dictators =20 in Burma, Iran and Cuba during his speech on
> Sept. 25 before the U.N. =20=
>
> General Assembly, but when it came time to praise countries
> like =20 Kyrgyzstan and Mauritania for making =93strides
> toward liberty,=94 the =20=
>
> president needed help with his pronunciation.
>
> In a copy of the president=92s speech that the White House
> released by =20=
>
> mistake, and which appeared briefly on the United Nations web
> page, =20 Mr. Bush=92s speechwriters provided the president
> with phonetic =20 transcriptions of the hard words
> KEYRgeez-stan and moor-EH-tain-ee-a, =20=
>
> along with cues to help him denounce Zimbabwe=92s Robert
> Mugabe (moo-=20 GAHbee), and the Harare (hah-RAR-ray) government.
>
> It=92s not unusual for public speakers to mark up their text
> with cues =20=
>
> to aid their delivery.  But our politicians are so convinced
> that the =20=
>
> linguistic transformation of Eliza Doolittle from
> inarticulate flower =20=
>
> girl to =93rain-in-Spain-falls-mainly-on-the-plain=94
> socialite in =93My = =20 Fair Lady=94 will help them in their
> own efforts to morph from prairie =20=
>
> oysters (TERD blahsumz) into master orators, that they line
> the =20 waiting rooms of the descendants of poor professor
> Higgins (EN-ree IG-=20=
>
> inz), seeking dialect transplants that their health insurance
> still =20 considers experimental.
>
> Nor is it surprising that the president got help with his
> U.N. =20 speech.  Bush has a history of mangling his English.
>  He trips over =20 difficult names like Abu Ghraib, says OPEC
> at an APEC meeting, and =20
> coins new catch phrases like =93I=92m the decider.=94   ....
>
> Read the rest of this new post on
>
> the Web of Language.
>
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
> DB
>
>
>
>
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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