-stans

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Have y'all noticed that President Obama (often, at least) pronounces "Pakistan" [pakIstan] while "
> Afghanistan" is [AfgAn at stAn]?  I've heard him use those pronunciations in the same sentence (well,
> maybe adjacent sentences).
>
> Is he being deferential to Pakistan, a precarious ally--whereas, since we own Afganistan (or hope to),
> the Americanized pronunciation is good enough?

Noted by Barbara Partee on Language Log here:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1183


--Ben Zimmer

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