Bush's Phonetic Pronunciation Guide Leaked to the Press
The Sun, UK
Tue September 25, 2007
George Bush's tongue-twisting battle with pronunciation has been revealed after the White House released an unedited script of his speech to the UN General Assembly by accident.
The President, famous for inventing words like "misunderestimate" and on one occasion forgetting the name of President Musharraf of Pakistan, is given a phonetic guide to key foreign names, the realease shows.
Mr Bush gets pronunciation guidance on foreign places such as "KEYR-geez-stan" and is also steered on how to say the name of French President "sar-KO-zee".
The speech shows he was not given help with the pronunciation of the Burmese opposition leader, and tripped over the name "Aung San Suu Kyi".
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum told The Times all presidential speeches carried phonetic guides, but releasing the unedited version to the press was an "oversight".
The accidental release came after an otherwise eloquent address to the 192-nation UN General Assembly.
President Bush asked member states to join in a "mission of liberation" and predicted that "the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end" in Cuba.
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