See title. For those who don’t know, the Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred. It’s named after Nelson Mandela because a significant number of people remembered him dying in prison in the 1980s, even though he actually passed away in 2013.
I’m curious to hear about your personal experiences with this phenomenon. Have you ever remembered an event, fact, or detail that turned out to be different from reality? What was it and how did you react when you found out your memory didn’t align with the facts? Does it happen often?
Somehow I had always thought it was Klu Klux Klan instead of Ku Klux Klan. I’m not sure where I got that or if anyone else thought the same thing though.
I believe it’s actually Clu Clu Land
similarly: some people say “visa versa”
That’s an expecially bad one! (I knew a lawyer who said that lol)
The romans pronounced it “uike uersa” or “wike wersa” (two syllables for each word). The letter “c” was always a k-sound, and “v” was like our “u”, it was the same letter for a long time. So another example, if you want to say “Veni vidi vici” the historically accurate way would be “Weni widi wiki”.
How do you know?
It’s been thoroughly researched by linguists. The main source is the pronounciation guides written by the romans themselves. They describe how to trill the R’s and how to say diphtongs etc, and compare latin pronounciation with the letters of other languages, mainly greek.
I thought that until just now.
Glad to know I wasn’t alone!