Rihanna, It Rhymes with Nirvana

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

I’m aware that this doesn’t prove anything, but I’m going to act like it proves something. I’ve been pronouncing Nirvana as though I was saying you’ve got a lot of nerve Anna... that may not be clear. Ann not on. Almost everyone I know pronounces Nirvana as though they were saying you’ve got a lot of nerve Vaughn, uh.

My argument is that although the band seemed to pronounce it like there was an extra u in there, Nirvauna, in the video for “In Bloom” there’s no Ah sound. The possibility is that the actor in the video said it wrong, but really what does that prove?

Like I said, this doesn’t prove anything, though I think it proves everything; it turns out that Rihanna is pronounced without the Ah sound either, like if you were sending a response email to Anna. Or more importantly, the way Rhiannon is pronounced in the Fleetwood Mac song.

It’s like when Bjork explained “it rhymes with jerk.” We just got it wrong that whole time. We’re such dorks.

So on behalf of my fellow Americans, Rihanna, I’d like to apologize that we add an extra U sound every so often to words like Nirvana and names like Andrea. I’d also like to scratch my head a little that our parents’ sisters sound like they’re planning to ruin our picnic, when it’s spelled aunt. I guess U is silent, the same way the U is silent in Nirvauna.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who is tired of these mispronuncinationses.