Why do Americans say Iraq as eye-rack?

Question

Its not an apple product! iPod, iRaq, its Iraq!

No, its not because of their accent, they choose to say iRaq. Its not difficult!

Answer 1

The first letter in the word is not an "I" anyway, it is an 'ayn, which is represented in English by an apostrophe '. It is a deep glottal sound made in the throat. The second sound "i" is a short vowel, and is not pronounced ee or eye. This is followed by the long "aa" vowel and then the guttural q sound, made in the back of the throat.

'Iraaq

Americans appear to be unwilling to find out how it is truly pronounced. There is really NO excuse to say EYE-RACK.

Omid Djalili, the British-Iranian Baha'i actor, was once asked: "How did you come to America." He replied: "I ran."

Answer 2

Well that's kind of an ignorant question. Why do you assume that all Americans say it the same way? That said, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that that's the way most American media outlets say it and the vast majority of the people in the country don't have easy and obvious access to auditory media from other English speaking countries.

Sure, there's the internet but how many accents do you think it takes to say "Dear U.S.: Your President is a motherfucing dumbass, religious hypocrite and you're losing the war." before you realize we get it? I mean, yeah, we get it. We got it. We've completely comprehended and those that haven't are probably also dumbass religious hypocrites By the time most foreign media finishes the usual "All that is wrong with the world involves Americans and they should all die painful terrible horrible deaths because they're a bunch of racist homophobic idiots." we've stopped listening.

You don't like us, We know. Everything we do is wrong. We know. Everything we say is wrong. We know. Our spellings are wrong. Our accents are ignorant. We should all get our guns and shoot ourselves for world peace. We know. But would it kill the foreign media correspondents to say "Iraq" before letting us know how much they hate us? I'm sure that would solve a lot
of problems with that pronunciation issue. It wouldn't make the world a better place; since we'd all still be alive, but it would make someone's day... possibly yours.

Answer 3

First-not all Americans do but the ones who do are ignorant, arrogant or just don't care. but then it is why many people don't pronounce American words properly. Ive heard many mispronunciations over my lifetime. One problem is there are so many newspeople with absolutely atrocious grammar-As the mouthpiece of many people I feel it's their duty to do a little research before murdering the English language as well as those of the rest of the world-Good luck p.s there are also most languages have many dialects (America has the south, the north, east west, and bostonian to name a few. So what one Americamn says is the proper way to pronouce a word another may pronounce it differently)-Hope this helps

Answer 4

Americans speak different English. Just listen to George W. :)

Answer 5

Because Americans don't know where Iraqland is!

And also it depends on which state of the Union the person comes from.

Answer 6

They say it wrong,like they did every thing in Iraq

Answer 7

Enlighten us dumb americans than. Gees. Being American gets you stereotyped real quick. And I can say IRAQ properly. Now I wont to tick people off. (Edit) What Happened to Tolerance. I think I am losing mine as far as Foriegn Relations.

Answer 8

because they cant speak english like you. they speak american. its just a different way of saying it.

by the way, where did sadam keep his CDs






















in a rack

Answer 9

Lemme guess, you're an Easterner, right?

You guys say your "i" as "ee" while we say it at "ai", hence the problem! Most of us would go "eye-talian", "eye ran ee" just out of force of habit, you see!

Also, you guys say "u" as "oo" and we say it as "yu" hence, again, the problem! You guys would say "oona" for Una or "ooma" for Uma, while we'd do it as yuna and yuma, out of force of habit; I'm sorry!

All the best!

Cheers!

Simon Templar

Answer 10

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Most of us Americans don't say it that way. Only some do. Our country is large, and there are many, many dialects of American English....Read my lips—AMERICAN ENGLISH, not the Queen's English. In case you hadn't noticed, we are a separate people now, though some of us would prefer it the other way, even with the bigotry and condescension from SOME English people (with bad teeth and manners to boot!=). \0/
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