The thing we’re trying to do, to prevent another 9/11, keeps
getting rebranded.
Stylistically, the low point came with the designation “GWOT”,
which stands for “Global War on Terror”.
Those who prosecute this mission, normally pronounce it “GEE-watt”
(though the acronym has largely fallen out of use); but I persist in pronouncing it as a monosyllable, the gwot -- rhyming with blot,
not, sot, rot, snot, and other words less respectable still. “How goes the gwot?” I greet those thus engaged.
An even uglier acronym (if such be possible), likewise
self-important in origin, was used, satirically, against Hitler:
Before it was over, his commanding
generals were referring to him bitterly
as Gröfaz: a name ugly enough to have served some monster of mythology,
some twisted kobold or goblin
embodying and spreading evil.
In actuality, it was a contraction of the title that General Keitel
bestowed upon the Führer in June
1940: Größter Feldherr aller Zeiten.
-- Gordon Craig, Germany
1866-1945 (1978), p. 714
As
to the pronunciation of this ungainly confection: it is best described
as something between a grunt and a groan, followed by an escape of
acrid gas.
(For a similar exercise in non-IPA transcription, cf. the case of "oahspe".)
[More empirically: GRU-fahts, with "U" as in "put".]
For a nice rhyming poem about this unusual creature, click here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/08/gare-le-grofaz.html
(For a similar exercise in non-IPA transcription, cf. the case of "oahspe".)
[More empirically: GRU-fahts, with "U" as in "put".]
For a nice rhyming poem about this unusual creature, click here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/08/gare-le-grofaz.html
*
Für psychologisch
tiefgreifende Krimis,
in pikanter
amerikanischer Mundart,
und christlich gesinnt,
klicken Sie bitte
hier:
*
The US military-diplomatic world abounds in acronyms pronounced
phonetically as words. Another ungainly one, designating (so to speak) the “Gröfaz”
of the United States, is POTUS; he
rules over CONUS. -- In the
opening episode of “West Wing”, a young fellow gets an emergency call on his
cell, explaining to his girlfriend that it is from “Potus”. She said the fellow should learn not to
call at ungodly hours, and moreover “Potus” is a strange name. “It means ‘President Of The United
States’”, he explains.
Note:
The pronunciations of such things is normally alphabetic-phonetic,
rather than etymological. Thus
CONUS (meaning, ‘the Lower 48’) is pronounced CONE-uss, with long “o”, even
though it is from CONtinental United States, with short.
Und nun: HoGeSa.
~
Und nun: HoGeSa.
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