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Friday 4 September 2009

Wreck and Run

We all know that Americans have a really weird way of pronouncing and spelling. They are always at loggerheads with what is conventional. I often wonder why. But I never reach to a particular answer.

But, knowingly or unknowingly, they sometimes do add “colour” to the language. Just take this example- they spell colour(oxford word) as color, which sounds similar to things like collar, colon and what not. Again, they spell sulphur as Sulfur. Thank god they don’t call it seal-fur! But Americans being Americans, you simply cannot be sure what they’ll come up with.

Take a current worldwide situation under the perspective. The fertile and once prosperous regions of the Euphrates- Tigris plains, so wonderfully and fondly called as Sumeria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Persia . At the time of their zenith, the world was in awe of those cultures. Technological advances, agriculture, fertility, all signs of prosperity. The region then came under the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and was flourishing again. Baghdad was a centre for learning, and a very important one too. Numerous references are made about it in ancient literature. Well, after that, like most other nations, the British occupied the region, and renamed it as Iraq and Iran.

That’s the OK part. Americans now, feeling threatened by these two nations, are almost on the verge of warring with them. They have already invaded and destroyed Iraq, and have one eye on Iran. Yes the situation there is bad and the governments may be extremists. But still… why I’m blabbering all this is that the Americans are creating a major Linguistic Parody here.

Iraq (eeraak) and Iran (Iraan) to the whole world are pronounced as I-wreck and I-ran respectively (well, by most of the the American citizens).Now now… is it really a coincidence that it clearly highlight the American Middle east Policy!! More speculation for skeptics!!! The Wreck- and Run policy it seems! They have indeed wrecked Iraq, and are now running after Iran! I wonder how they say “Tehran”? They-ran probably? Or “Baghdad” as Bug-Dad?

Deep within, I feel totally secure as our Constitution has adopted “INDIA” as the formal name in international affairs. Just imagine if we used BHARAT. I mean, I’m still 100 percent for using it, but only not in front of Americans. Otherwise they will pronounce it like Borat. I don’t want my country to be pronounced in a similar way to an idiosyncratic brat!

But yea, definitely, Americans with their distinct lack of linguistic skills (Remember, they don’t have their own language, but have stolen it from England) and an even more distinct and unconventionally weird way of pronunciation are making the funnier side of me tickle…

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