What’s in the pronunciation of a word? It can give you away as a complete noob, someone from another world, or a massive fanboy, but for Apple chief executive Tim Cook’s butchering of the word Pokémon, it’s not easy to see which description is correct.
When asked about how Cook and his company were responding to the surge in interest in augmented reality fuelled by the phenomenon of Niantic’s Pokémon Go, the Apple boss said: “In terms of AR and the Pokeyman [sic] phenomenon it’s incredible what has happened there, and it’s a testament to what happens with innovative apps and the power of a developer of being able to push a button so to speak, and off their product around the world.
“One thing is to make sure our products work well with other developer’s kinds of products like Pokeyman [sic], and so that’s the reason you see so many iPhones out there in the wild chasing Pokeymans [sic].”
Now, on the one hand you could say that Cook made a blunder and that everyone in the world knows it’s a contraction of Pocket Monsters (oh, you didn’t? well, now you do) and that the acute accent is pronounced. Also, the plural of Pokémon is, unsurprisingly, Pokémon, not Pokémons or Pokémans etc.
But, you could also give Cook the benefit of the doubt. Pokeymans, at least in some circles, is a term of endearment for the childhood friend that Pokémon have been for so many over the years. Maybe what Cook has done here has outed himself as a Pokémon superfan, and perhaps that’s why he’s up at 3.45am every morning for an hour of emails, then the gym by 5am - really, he’s chasing Pokémon.
After all, people will do almost anything to get an edge.
