Spending eight years as a radio announcer/newscaster and not wanting to sound like a doofus while I was doing it made me a bit sensitive to matters of pronunciation. I was told to try to pronounce geographical names as closely as possible to the way people who live there pronounce it, without sounding affected (i.e., rolling Rs, etc.). When in doubt, I check a couple different dictionaries, the NBC Pronunciation Guide, and any other authoritative source I have at hand.

The consensus appears to be something very close to "ear-RAHK" (not being able to use actual diacritical marks). Another attempt would be "ee-ROCK." According to what I was able to find, the above is pretty much the way Iraqis pronounce it. Listening to sound-bites of Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, whom one hears frequently in the news these days, tends to verify this.

It drives me nuts when people who should know better, such as high ranking politicians who are involved in foreign policy, don't take the time or trouble (two minutes to look it up in a good dictionary) to learn to pronounce the names of people and countries they're dealing with constantly. Lots of U. S politicians insist on saying "EYE-RACK." Lyndon B. Johnson, while deeply involved with Vietnam ("VEE-et-NAHM"), insisted on pronouncing it "VEET-NAM" (short A).

Will someone please tell George W. Bush that the word is "NYEW-klee-ar," not "NOO-kyuh-ler?" (You'd be amazed at the number of nuclear physicists who do the same thing!!! Weird!)

End of thread drifty rant.

Don Firth