This is a great linguistics analysis from SLATE Magazine writer Kate Taylor, trying to answer the age old pronunciation situation in our neighbour nation’s capital.

“When speaking about nuclear weapons, George W. Bush invariably pronounces the word “nucular.” Is this an acceptable pronunciation? Not really. Changing “nu-clee-ar” into “nu-cu-lar” is an example of what linguists call metathesis, which is the switching of two adjacent sounds. (Think of it this way: “nook le yer” becomes “nook ye ler.”) This switching is common in English pronunciation; you might pronounce “iron” as “eye yern” rather than “eye ron.” Why do people do it? One reason, offered in a usage note in the American Heritage Dictionary, is that the “ular” ending is extremely common in English, and much more common than “lear.” Consider particular, circular, spectacular, and many science-related words like molecular, ocular, muscular.”