Fauci, Kamala among famous names on mispronounced words list

FOW-chee, CAW-ma-la….dah-VIN-chee?

America’s preeminent infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, and its incoming vice president, Kamala Harris, join Renaissance master himself, Leonardo da Vinci, atop this year’s list of most misprounced words, as complied by U.S. Captioning Company, which captions and subtitles real-time events on TV and in courtrooms.

list released Wednesday identifies words that proved most challenging for newsreers and people on television to prounce this year.

caption company said it surveyed its members to generate list, which is w in its fifth year and was commissioned by Babbel, a langu-learning app company with hequarters in Berlin and New York.

Todd Ehresmann, a senior linguist at Babbel, said list, unsurprisingly, reflects a year dominated by presidential politics and coronavirus pandemic.

“All of se have ded some new phrases to our national vocabulary, which may take some practice,” he said.

Here’s how Ehresmann broke down proper pronunciations for commonly misspoken words:

Anthony Fauci (AN-thon-nee FOW-chee): Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Bangtan Sonyeondan (PUNG-tahn SOH-nyun-dahn): full name of South Korean K-Pop band ‘BTS’, which translates as “a group of bulletproof boys” or “bulletproof boy scouts.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo (YON-nis AHN-de-doh-KOON-boh): Greek basketball player who plays for Milwaukee Bucks and was named NBA’s ‘Most Valuable Player’ this year.

Isias ( ees-ah-EE-ahs ): name given to a powerful hurricane that caused significant dam to East Coast and Caribbean this summer.

Kamala Harris (CAW-ma-la HAIR-iss): Vice President-Elect.

Leonardo da Vinci (lee-oh-NAR-doe dah-VIN-chee): Italian painter, architect, and engineer who created ‘Mona Lisa.’ A mispronunciation of his name was subject of a viral meme on social media this year.

Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle (mu-HAH-muh-yaw-vee bag-AH-wahn ANT-uhl): full name of wildlife park operator ‘Doc’ Antle, who shot to fame in Netflix documentary series ‘Tiger King.’

Neva ( nev-D-ah ): Homestate of Las Vegas that played a central role in presidential election.

X Æ A-Xii (EX-aye-eye): name given by business magnate Elon Musk and musician Grimes to ir first child born in May. pronunciation is according to Grimes.

Yosemite (YOH-sem-it-ee): famous national park in California’s Sierra Neva mountains, it was tably misprounced by President Trump in August.

(Im Credits: AP)