A list of mispronounced words flashback to 2024, from Kamala to Chappell

On December 5, 2024By Littum

DALLAS (AP) — Vice Pres Kamala Harris and breakout pop star Chappell Roan was among the most talked about people of the year. Their names were also among the most mispronounced.

Language teaching company Babbel and closed captioning company The Captioning Group on Wednesday released a list of the words that news anchors, politicians and other public figures in the United States struggled with the most in 2024. The list also provides a look back at the year’s most discussed topics and people, from pop culture to politics.

“It’s a great way to look back on the year and see everything that’s happened,” said Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel.

Roan – whose hits include “Good Luck, Babe!” — shot to fame this year and is nominated for six Grammy Awards. According to the list, her name is pronounced CHAP-uhl ROHN, not SHA-pel ROW-an.

I. this combination image from left to right; Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Allentown, Pa., Nov. 4, 2024, and Chappell Roan in Elmont, N.Y., on Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Invision)

During Harris’ failed run for president this year, her great-nieces stepped up stage at the Democratic National Convention to clarify how to say her first name, it’s pronounced COM-a-la. The US Secretary of Transportation also made the list Pete Buttigieg, whose last name still leaves people tongue-tied. During his 2020 presidential run, his campaign made posters and T-shirts with the pronunciation “Boot-Edge-Edge” to help.

Other words on the list include:

AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on the most mispronounced names of 2024.

— Dutch Kooikerhondje, pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che, is a dog breed that entered the lexicon this year. This is largely due to Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has a Kooikerhondje called Decoy who won the hearts of fans while delivering a ceremonial first pitch.

– The name of the actress Zendaya who starred in “Challengers,” is often mispronounced zen-DIE-uh, but should be zen-DAY-a.

– Online the fast-fashion giant Shein is SHE-in, not SHEEN.

— The newly discovered exoplanet Speculoos-3b is pronounced SPEK-yuh-lohss three bi.

— Phryge, mascot at the Paris Olympics, pronounced FREE-je. It was a nod to the Phrygian cap, an emblematic accessory of the French revolutionaries.

— Semaglutide, the substance in weight loss medication Ozempic and Wegovy, pronounced sem-ah-GLOO-tide, not SE-mah-gloo-tide.

— The surname of the Irish actor Barry Keoghanwho starred in “Saltburn,” is pronounced key-OH-gin.

FILE – Barry Keoghan arrives at the 15th Governors Awards on November 17, 2024 at The Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, FIle)

Nancy Niedzielski, chair of the linguistics department at Rice University in Houston, points out that most of the words on the list are not English, so it is not surprising that they would be mispronounced in the United States. The key to pronouncing them correctly, she said, would probably just be hearing them spoken.

“There aren’t really many tricks other than knowing how orthology works in that language,” she said.

Several of the words on the US list, including Keoghan, Phryge and Shein, also made the UK list, compiled by Babbel with the help of the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters, a professional subtitling organisation.

Other words on the British list include flying shame, a Swedish expression pronounced FLEEG shame, popularized by climate activist Greta Thunberg, which translates as “flying shame”, and Chagos Islands, pronounced CHAY-goss, which made the list after the British government this year returned sovereignty over the long-disputed Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.

FILE – Phryge, the 2024 Olympic mascot, dances in the South Paris Arena, during the men’s handball match between Denmark and Egypt at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

FILE – Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani brings his dog Decoy to the mound before Decoy delivered the ceremonial first pitch prior to a baseball game between the Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

Touma, a native Spanish speaker, said that if you can’t pronounce a word, it’s important to just keep trying.

“One of the problems we have is that our mouths are not trained to make these sounds that come from different languages,” he said.

Touma admitted that even he struggles with some words, including Harris’ first name. Although he knows the correct pronunciation, he said, it is difficult to get it right in the moment when he is in a conversation.

As Roan’s music gained popularity over the year, it was an interesting cultural moment to watch as people learned to pronounce her first and last name, he said.

“The way we create understanding with each other is just to try to do these things,” Touma said.