Why the hell can’t people say “nuclear” right?

It isn’t necessarily based on ignorance (considering that THREE of our Presidents have pronounced it this way in the past 50 years). In many cases it’s more likely a regional accent.

Actually, though I agree with the standard pronunciation here, your argument is not rock-solid. There are MANY cases in English in which a word keeps its historic or etymological spelling but is not (or no longer) pronounced “phonetically” according to the spelling.

Now “NOO-kyu-ler” is the result of a type of re-ordering of the sounds of a word –called “metathesis”– that is very common in language. It MAY come about by confusion, but often it happens simply because the expected form is more difficult to pronounce. In some cases the change is considered ignorant or at least non-standard, in other instances it is an or even THE accepted pronunciation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_(linguistics)

Here are some examples in English that are STANDARD:

a) “iron” is pronounced “i-urn” (Does ANYONE say “i-ron”?) But we DO keep the sounds in their written order in the suffixed form “ironic”. (We do the same with “irony”, though it’s acceptable, or at least permitted, to say “i-urnee” –as we do with “ironing”. Thus, the most important factor seems to be where the word is ACCENTED. )

b) “comfortable” is widely pronounced as “CUMF’-terbl” or “CUMF-tuhbl”. That is, the r & t sounds in “comfort” are reversed.

There are two conflicting “laws” at work here. In our SPELLING, we do not change the base when we add the suffix “able”. But the change in the PHONOLOGY (sound pattern) pushes us to SAY the word in a way that is much easier or ‘more natural’ to pronounce.

If it helps – here’s how it happens. Note that the syllable in question –“fort”– has a slight accent in “comfort” but almost NO accent when we add the “able” suffix. In English, adding suffixes frequently shifts or reduces accent of certain syllables. When a syllable loses accent, the vowel typically is shortened; in an UN-accented syllable it may end up as the ‘swallowed’, unaccented “schwa” sound, or even completely disappear. But this leaves us with the unaccented combination “frt” which is more difficult or at least less natural to pronounce. The natural solution is to simplify the pronunciation, either by skipping the “r” sound (which leads some to say “cumf’-tubly”) or to reverse sounds (“metathesis”) and say “cumf’turbly”.

(Some folks insist on pronouncing it as “***-for-ta-bul”, but I suspect for many this is ONLY because they think they MUST do so because of the spelling. This is a bit like the recent trend to pronounce the t in “often”, which has actually long been silent, as it is in “soften”, cf. listen, hasten, etc.)

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As for “nuclear”

Note that “nuclear” is the ONLY root word in English in which is -clear is pronounced as “-klee-ur”. On the other hand, there are MANY words that end with “-cular”, e.g., circular, muscular, vehicular (check out this list of 105 – http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/cular ). There is a STRONG tendency in language to take words that are new, rare or unfamiliar or that simply have an unusual pattern (within that language) and adapt them to normal/common sound-patterns in the language.

This may be more of an individual thing OR can be common to (or more common in) certain dialects, either because of the particular sound patterns of those dialects, or simply because people in a particular region have HEARD it that way so much, they find it hard to say it otherwise, even if they KNOW the standard pronunciation.

I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. Different people have different shaped teeth, tongues, lips, larynx, palate, and other such stuff that effects the way they say certain things. Plus there is regional dialect to consider. Perhaps you might try worrying more about the absolute threat of Nuclear War than how to pronounce the word. The word is pronounced – nu-kle-er . (u) pronounced as (oo) in moon. (e) pronounced (e) (long e). (e) in (er) pronounced as a schwa-like the (u) in abut, so it is pronounce more (ur) than (er).

It’s my (and my son’s) pet peeve too. I have heard people that are admirals, presidents, even (Jimmy Carter) a NUCLEAR submarine commander who couldn’t say it right. What’s up with that!!??

Same reason we are in war with “a rock” I guess… No one can pronounce anything right these days, sheesh!

It drives me nuts too don’t the stupid people know that nuclear is new-klee(rhymes which glee)-er?!

I still can’t get over people spelling lose as loose.