Posted on 04/11/2014 6:54:40 PM PDT by SMGFan
A contestant named Julian from Indiana University must be feeling pretty stupid right about now. He had the chance to win $1 million, had the puzzle fully solved, and then lost because he pronounced Achilles like “A-chill-us.” Because of that mistake, the show decided not to give him the victory and instead, one of the other contestants who know the “mythological hero” got the chance to steal and did. (To win the full $1 million he would have had to overcome some other hurdles as well.)
(Excerpt) Read more at mediaite.com ...
Pul-ease. Wasn’t he the king of the Mermaidens?
What obviously took place was that he had read and absorbed the material so good for him!!! But had not heard a real world pronunciation yet so he pronounced as best he could. I have done this myself. It is a good sign of self-education. I would have allowed his answer
Reminds me of the time many years ago when I was watching the local news, and the youthful news reader came upon a word that caused him to pause. The word was “yacht” and he looked at it for a few seconds and pronounced it “yashed” or something similar. My friends and I still chuckle about that.
Guess the Amish don’t value the study of Greek mythology and its pronunciation. I have no problem with the show insisting on correct pronunciation, no matter the prize at risk. It was funny that the Aggie girl was the beneficiary of his error.
Exactly my point....it is crap.
“....it was bad family-value attitude towards schooling.”
Or the schooling itself. I went to what was considered a very good, academically-oriented high school. We had to test for admission, with a low acceptance rate. STILL, it wasn’t till college that I even heard the expression “Achilles heel.”
This contestant knew what he was answering to, and had clearly read independently and pronounced it as he’d read it. The judges should have figured that out rather than deny him the win. Nothing wrong with self-education.
One of my kids spent a year studying at Cambridge in the UK. More Ivy than our Ivies. At the local pub where my kiddo worked, a regular customer brought his dog, Ajax, every day. When my kid’s British rowing teammates visited the pub and met Ajax, they asked why anyone would name his dog after a household cleaner.
I agree, he didn’t know the name, and that was reflected in the fact that he pronounced it as if sounding it out for the first time.Achilles tendon, Achilles heel ... most people have been exposed to the correct pronunciation of the name.
. . . of course, if Mr. Achilles himself were to have been standing there in place of that contestant, he of course wouldn’t have been able to read the English alphabet - and even if he did know - and care - that he was supposed to pronounce his name, the chances that Pat Sajak (or you, or I) would recognize any connection between the spelled word and his own pronunciation of his own name are pretty slim.I have a friend from Central America, and I can spell his name - but if I heard a member of his own family pronounce his name, I would have no clue who - or even what - they were talking about. Bottom line, he has two names - one anglicized, the other not. Both spelled alike, seemingly utterly unrelated when pronounced.
Any relation to Jenjis Khan?
I briefly heard an audio replay on F&F this morning I think.
I believe it sounded like an accent, foreign perhaps, and that the man pronounced by syllables: aa - kee - lus
Which would be reasonable for an accented person to say.
Oh they done sprouted, all right.
Exactly, would love to see a Wheel skit with Obama ruled wrong for saying Navy corpse man
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