By Associated Press’s JAMIE STENGLE
DALLAS (AP) — Among the most talked-about individuals of the year were Vice President Kamala Harris and music sensation Challen Roan. They also had some of the most mispronounced names.
A list of the phrases that news anchors, lawmakers, and other prominent personalities in the United States found most difficult to use in 2024 was revealed on Wednesday by the closed captioning company The Captioning Group and the language-learning startup Babbel. The list also offers a look back at the most talked-about subjects and figures of the year, ranging from politics to pop culture.
Says Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural specialist at Babbel, “it’s a nice way to kind of look back into the year and see everything that has happened.”
This year, Roan, whose singles include “Good Luck, Babe!” soared to stardom and received six Grammy nominations.The list states that her name should be pronounced CHAP-uhl ROHN rather than SHA-pel ROW-an.
Her great-nieces walked to the stage at the Democratic National Convention during Harris’ failed presidential campaign this year to explain how to pronounce her first name, which is pronounced COM-a-la. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose last name still leaves people speechless, was also on the list. To aid with his 2020 presidential campaign, his team created posters and T-shirts that pronounced the words “boot-edge-edge.”
Additional terms on the list consist of:
This year, the dog breed known as Dutch Kooikerhondje—pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che—became popular. The main reason for this is that Shohei Ohtani, the star of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has a Kooikerhondje named Decoy who captured the hearts of the crowd with his euphoric first pitch.
Zendaya, who starred in Challengers, is an actress whose name is frequently mispronounced as zen-DIE-uh when it should be zen-DAY-a.
Fast-fashion online behemoth Shein is not SHEEN; she is SHE-in.
Pronounce the newly found exoplanet Speculoos-3b as SPEK-yuh-lohss three bees.
The pronunciation of Phryge, the Olympic mascot in Paris, is FREE-je. The Phrygian cap, a symbol of the French revolutionaries, was referenced.
The name semaglutide, which is found in the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, should be pronounced sem-ah-GLOO-tide rather than SEE-mah-gloo-tide.
Barry Keoghan, an Irish actor who starred in Saltburn, pronounces his last name key-OH-gin.
Since the majority of the words on the list are not in English, it is not strange that they would be mispronounced in the United States, according to Nancy Niedzielski, chair of the linguistics department at Rice University in Houston. She stated that hearing them uttered aloud would likely be the key to correctly pronouncing them.
According to her, there aren’t any genuine tricks save understanding how that language’s orthology functions.
The British Institute of Verbatim Reporters, a group for experts in subtitling, assisted Babbel in compiling the list for the United Kingdom, which included several of the words from the U.S. list, such as Keoghan, Phryge, and Shein.
Other terms on the U.K. list include the Chagos Islands, pronounced CHAY-goss, which made the list after the British government this year returned sovereignty of the long-contested Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, and flygskam, a Swedish term popularized by climate activist Greta Thunberg and pronounced FLEEG-skam, which translates as flight shame.
According to native Spanish speaker Touma, it’s crucial to keep trying even if you have trouble pronouncing a word.
He stated that one of the issues we have is that our mouths are not conditioned to produce these sounds from other languages.
Touma acknowledged that he had trouble pronouncing certain terms, such as Harris’ first name. He claimed that even if he is aware of the proper pronunciation, it can be challenging to pronounce words correctly in the middle of a conversation.
“It was an interesting cultural moment to watch as people learned to pronounce Roan’s first and last name as her music gained popularity over the course of the year,” he said.
Touma stated that simply attempting to accomplish these goals is how we build mutual understanding.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!