AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So every year, we radio hosts say hundreds of thousands of words into the mickrophone (ph).
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Yeah, so we're bound to mispronoonce (ph) some of them.
CHANG: Exactly. I mean, we try our best, but sometimes we just can't heelp (ph) it.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Notice anything, people?
KELLY: Thankfully, Ailsa, we are not aloon (ph). Today, the language-learning company Babbel and its partners in the U.K. and U.S. released their lists of the most mispronoonced (ph) words of 2024.
CHANG: Right. And we're talking about words that politicians and public figures - and yes, even we in the media - just could not get right this year. Some of them, you might be able to guess.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: But if radical, liberal Kamahla (ph) Harris gets in - and by the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name.
KELLY: There are not numerous ways of saying her name. It's Kamala, which she has had to correct many times over her career. So has another person on this year's list.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHAPPELL ROAN: If you've been saying Chapelle Roann (ph), this is your final warning.
(LAUGHTER)
ROAN: It's Chappell Roan, babe.
(CHEERING)
CHANG: Say it with me - Chappell Roan, babe. Now, Babbel made the list for American mispronunciations and British mispronunciations, and there were a few that did make it on both lists. I mean, should we try some of those, Mary Louise?
KELLY: Yeah, we can try. For example, the name of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic mascot - let's do it together.
CHANG: Oh, my God.
KELLY: One, two, three.
CHANG: Phryge.
KELLY: Phryge.
CHANG: Nailed it.
KELLY: Yeah.
CHANG: All right. Next up, the name of an Earth-sized exoplanet that astronomers discovered this year. Are you ready?
KELLY: Ready.
CHANG: One, two, three.
KELLY: SPECULOOS-3 b.
CHANG: SPECULOOS-3 b. We're so amazing.
KELLY: Yeah, babe.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: There is one name, though, Ailsa, that stumped Brits and Americans the most.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: And we got a lot of flak, like, especially on TikTok, about how we said Barry Keeogan (ph). But, I mean, we're American...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: But, like, it's Keoghan. Like, Keeogan is not an Irish name.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Kurrgan (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Keoghan. It's Irish.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Kurrn (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: I looked it up.
CHANG: In an interview with Variety in September, the Irish actor did clear up the confusion about whether the G in his last name is pronounced - which it is.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARRY KEOGHAN: Some people get it wrong. I mean, even Irish people get it wrong. But, I don't know, we pronounce the G.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: So the internet now knows, is that's how you say Barry Keoghan.
KELLY: OK, one last word here, Ailsa. This one is not on the list, but I feel strongly about it because I mispronounced it on air. So what do you call a string of islands stretching into the sea?
CHANG: Oh, that's easy. Archipelago.
KELLY: No, archipelahgo (ph).
CHANG: Who says archipelahgo?
KELLY: Me. I do.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: Here's to this full and complete years of mispronoonciations (ph)...
CHANG: (Laughter).
KELLY: ...And another one upon us.
CHANG: Archipelahgo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
