FAL-lu-JAH

Amy Austin | November 16, 2004
Is anybody else here as annoyed by CNN Headline News anchorwoman Rudi Bakhtiar's pronunciation of this as E and myself? In fact, we are driven so crazy by it that he decided tonight (okay, last night -- we are getting ready for the movers to come today) that he wanted to write to CNN about it. I felt a good rant in my fingers and asked that he let me write it -- this is what I wrote:

With all the news coming from "Falluja" these days, one has to hear it a lot out of the mouths of news anchors everywhere. My wife and I find it particularly irksome to hear it said by evening/night-time news anchorwoman Rudi Bakhtiar... like a foreign word in the middle of an otherwise natural sounding sentence. Of course, we do realize that it *is* a foreign word/place, but the emphasis that Ms. Bakhtiar places on the first and last syllables is so irritating and grating that it keeps us in a perpetual state of comical mimicry whenever she is speaking, which in turn totally detracts from the actual content of the "headline news" -- we just can't help ourselves.

While this may seem like a rather petty commentary in relation to the gravity of the actual coverage, we can't help but wonder how many other viewers out there feel as we do about this nightly annoyance. It hearkens back to the 80s, when "Honduras" and "El Salvador" were in the news with as much frequency, and sketch comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live were rich with the fodder of white, white news anchors who spoke normal sentences interspersed with the sudden *abnormal* development of really pathetic Latin American accents. It was distracting (and funny) then, and it's distracting (and annoying) now!

Scott Horowitz | November 16, 2004
Why can't Iraq have normal named cities? They should change Baghdad to Iraq City and Fallujah to Turbantown. Who's with me?

Anna Gregoline | November 16, 2004
I get what you mean about anchor people using their "accent" voice, but I can't really say I know how Fallujah is supposed to be pronounced.

Lori Lancaster | November 16, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 16, 2004
Lori, I say "torh-tee-yas" -- I think most everyone I know says it that way -- but I don't do it in a way that differentiates itself from the rest of my speech... like I'm suddenly the Taco Bell chihuahua for just that one word, you know? That's what bugs me about it...

Scott Horowitz | November 16, 2004
Lori, you think you've got it bad? Think how bad people butcher Hebrew words. A 'ch' is pronounced hard, like a grinding noise, not like the standing noise. 98% of any word you have heard that starts with an "h" starts with this sound. And, no one pronounces it correctly.

Jackie Mason | November 16, 2004
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Erik Bates | November 16, 2004
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Jackie Mason | November 16, 2004
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Erik Bates | November 17, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 17, 2004
But at least when Alex Trebek is saying something, he's only saying it once and with a certain air that seems (at least, to me) like a nice combination of joviality and humility -- kind of like, "I *could* be saying this all wrong, but here goes anyway!" But maybe that's just me.

This woman, on the other hand, says it every two or three minutes, and it's said with such seriousness that it's jarring to hear the improbable "accent" each and every time!

Scott Hardie | November 17, 2004
Now here's something. I was just finishing up a rant about how I'd like somebody to show me "Porter" Rico on a map, and I wondered if I could find some other debate online about this pet peeve of mine. I searched for "porter rico" on Google and found lots of results, so I narrowed it to "porter rico" pronounce and only one site came up. Guess which one?

Hint: (link)

Anna Gregoline | November 17, 2004
Wow!

Amy Austin | November 17, 2004
That's so hilarious -- that thread was a good read, too! Maybe I'll get around to all of them this way! ;> I guess I'll post the rest of my remarks there... but maybe later. I really "orta" be doin' "udder mowh impowhtant stuff" right now -- this apahtment needs cleaned!!! And my truck needs loaded too. ;DDDDDDD

I will say this for now: I'm disappointed that I couldn't take the quiz, since it appears to no longer be there -- but I know that I "probly" would've scored higher on the Dixie side... my accent is "probly" most like Erik's. See y'all here sometime.

P.S., John -- yes, now it really is a "laptop"! But if I choose the crouched on knees/elbows in front of monitor (on hardwood floor) position, I might actually get off of here faster and get to work on those "mowh impowhtant tings"... ;DDD

Anna Gregoline | November 17, 2004
Can I say, what is ";DDDDDDD?"

Amy Austin | November 17, 2004
Sure, you may ask, and I will say -- a wink and lots of big, cheesy grins...

Scott Hardie | November 17, 2004
Have a good move, Amy. We'll be waiting for you.