Perhaps he used an unaspirated dental stop. The thing I noticed about the pronunciation was not the first syllable but the soft "th" sound that is somewhere between a hard t and th. He takes out the yankie 'twang' which gives it an authentic Urdu feel. I think his pronounciation of Pakistan is far better than any American politician I've heard. It’s almost as if the ending -istan were subject to some kind of vowel harmony. It is striking that at 0:09 he says æfˈgænɪstæn ən ˈpɑkɪstɑn. What they are trying to say, I assume, is that Obama’s pronunciation of the first and last vowel of Pakistan involved the PALM-LOT vowel ɑ (described as ‘exotic’ or ‘soft’) rather than the TRAP vowel æ.) (So what is a ‘soft “a”’? It’s a pity that people don’t have the vocabulary to talk clearly about phonetic matters. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder even joined in: "Noticing that Obama says Pahk-istan and McCain says Pack-istan." But as Think Progress tells us America's hero of Iraq and Afghanistan David Petraeus also pronounces Pakistan with a soft "a", just like Obama. – "Drinking Game: A shot every time the candidates pronounce 'Pakistan' or 'Taliban' in an annoying way?" – "Most overwrought pronunciation of the night: The academic way that Obama says 'Pakistan' with a soft "a" - reminscent of a 1980s Saturday Night Live sketch in which newscasters over-pronounced 'Managua, Nicaragua'." – "Re Senator Obama’s ostentatiously exotic pronunciation of Pakistan, one thing I like about Sarah Palin is the way she says "Eye-raq"." Seriously though - no one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. Fortunately I have an old copy of New Republic and a Coors Light to snap me back to reality. – "When Obama says Pock-i-stahn I have an uncontrollable urge to read the New Yorker and find some Chardonnay. Listen here, at times 0:09, 0:49, and 0:58.Īccording to a report on the Independent website, “Obama blasted for pronouncing Pakistan correctly”, dated 9 October, reactions to this included
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To see the IPA phonetic symbols in the text, please ensure that you have installed a Unicode font that includes them all, for example Lucida Sans Unicode or Charis SIL (click name for free download).īrowsers: I recommend Firefox (free) or, if you prefer, Opera (also free).īefore Barack Obama was elected, while he was still campaigning to become President, there was comment in the American media on how he pronounced Pakistan. John Wells’s phonetic blog - archive, 1-15 December 2008