If it was to be pronounced “nucular”, it would have been spelled that way. The spelling indicates that “nuclear” derives from the already corrupted term and should be pronounced as such.
If you really want to be etymologically correct, nuclear and nucular are both wrong and it should be nuculear (new-queue-le-ar), which is similar to and indeed also, a bit peculiar.
Everything is spelled how it is pronounced, no tough thorough thought required.
You make a valid point, but the root word is Latin which obeys specific, much simpler rules about pronunciation.
These are unavoidably mangled by passing into post-GVS English, sure, but nonetheless, this is, uh, clearly a case where the spelling does reflect an intended pronunciation.
Wednesday
February
Lmao
I’m still gonna pronounce gif as gif though
thats just so wrong, of course its pronounced as gif
I just learned how to pronounce Gandalf also.
Jandalf?
Nobody made this argument until George Dubya pronounced it one way, and everyone said it was the other. He had a habit of idiot pronunciations, but not this time. Jimmy Carter pronounced it the same way, and he was an engineer on a nuclear submarine.
*nucular submare ;)
Relevant Simpsons: https://youtu.be/Nth4RqqmQZ4
How did Dubya and Jimmy pronounce it?
🖕
Interestingly, an area I found where the spelling of words can evolve extremely rapidly is geography.
I’m mapping on openstreetmap and finding the right spelling for small dwellings and locations can be an impossible task.
Unless there is a clear physical signage for it somewhere the name of a single place can change drastically in a few decades. From one generation to another the name changes and finding “the right” spelling is sometimes an impossible task.
I have a lot of cases where the cadastral map, the postal database and the mapping institute each have a different spelling/name for the same location.
