Kamala to Chappell: Most mispronounced words of 2024 revealed
Chappell Roan performs at Outside Lands at Golden Gate Park on August 11, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Credit: Dana Jacobs/WireImage)
Pop star Chappell Roan and Vice President Kamala Harris were among the year’s most talked-about people. Their names were also among the most mispronounced.
Since 2016, the language learning company Babbel has partnered with TV captioning groups to determine the words that newscasters, politicians and other people in the media have the most trouble with.
On Wednesday, Babbel revealed its 2024 list of words and names, which features Irish actors, American politicians and more.
"It’s a nice way to kind of look back into the year and see everything that has happened," Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel, said in a statement.
Nancy Niedzielski, chair of the linguistics department at Rice University in Houston, also pointed out that most of the words on the list are not English, so it’s not surprising that they would be mispronounced in the U.S. The key to pronouncing them correctly, she said, would probably just be hearing them spoken, she said.
"There aren’t really tricks short of knowing how orthology works in that language," she told The Associated Press.
Most mispronounced words of 2024
Chappell Roan shot to fame in 2024 for her music and Christmas collaboration with Sabrina Caprtenter. She has been nominated for six Grammy awards.
But her name is often mispronounced, with Roan even calling out those mispronouncing her name during a live performance.
According to the list, her name is pronounced CHAP-uhl ROHN, not SHA-pel ROW-an.
Other actresses and celebrities on the list include Zendaya and Barry Keoghan.
The name of the actress Zendaya, who has starred in several movies and television series including "Challengers," "Dune" and "Euphoria," is often mispronounced as zen-DIE-uh, but it should be zen-DAY-a.
In addition, the last name of Irish actor Barry Keoghan, who starred in "Saltburn," is pronounced key-OH-gin.
Kamala Harris’ name often mispronounced
During Harris’ unsuccessful run for president this year, her great-nieces took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention to clear up how to say her first name, pronounced COM-a-la.
Also making the list was U.S. Transportation Secretary 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 mispronounced names
Dutch Kooikerhondje, pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che, is a breed of dog that made its way into the lexicon this year. This is largely because the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has a Kooikerhondje called Decoy who won the hearts of fans while delivering a ceremonial first pitch.
Semaglutide, the drug in weight-loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy, also made the list. It is pronounced sem-ah-GLOO-tide, not SEE-mah-gloo-tide.
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In addition, Phryge, the mascot of the Paris Olympics, was included in the roundup. The word, which is pronounced FREE-je, was a nod to the Phrygian cap, an emblematic accessory of the French revolutionaries.
Online fast-fashion giant Shein is SHE-in, not SHEEN.
Newly discovered exoplanet Speculoos-3b is pronounced SPEK-yuh-lohss three bee.