nancylebov: blue moon (Default)
[personal profile] nancylebov
http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2008/10/still-going-nucular.html

In fact, this very relationship has been found in a new study of the pronunciation of "Iraq." While Lauren Hall-Lew and her collaborators do not find any variation on the pronunciation of the first vowel, their carefully coded analysis of Congressional statements and media coverage shows that "Iraq's second vowel indexes conservativism when produced as /ae/ and political liberalism when produced as /a:/" - even controlling for regional accent.

I hear "Eye-rahk" now and then on NPR. I think it's more commonly used by military people.

From the comments: We see the same thing with the word "Iran." In liberal circles, it's usually pronounced "err-ron," Whereas in more conservative ones we hear "I-Ran."

I pronounce it "Ih-rahn". Maybe that means I'm a libertarian.

Footnote: Sometimes I pronounce it "Ih-ran", with a nasal Delaware a that I don't know how to express by typing.
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