Wow-ay VS Whoa-way: Fight of the Century

[remmy]

Whore or har?

Har

[minnick27]

I say har. And if new york and philly can agree it must be right

[mellow weasel]

Wait, you pronounce "horrible" as "harrible" ? How come I've never heard such pronunciation in any movie or a tv show?

[remmy]

It seems like it's a pretty regional thing, mostly NYC/Philly/Boston and vicinities.

They Might Be Giants pronounce it that way!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pud7rt4KhU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Muldernscully]

Wow. I never thought of pronouncing it WOW-AY. That would split up Weird Al Yankovic, which makes no sense to me. World Of------Weird Al Yankovic vs. World of Weird--------Al Yankovic. But, to each his own, I guess.

[mellow weasel]

Wow. I never thought of pronouncing it WOW-AY. That would split up Weird Al Yankovic, which makes no sense to me. World Of------Weird Al Yankovic vs. World of Weird--------Al Yankovic. But, to each his own, I guess.

There's no splitting in either pronunciation . They're not saying "wow" and "ay" as seperate words . It's only a matter of how you pronounce letter "o" (as in "low" or in "down"), "way" part always sounds the same.

[Yup.]

I thought the rule of vowel pronunciation was when a vowel is followed by a consonant then a vowel, the vowel is pronounced as itself (ex: o would be pronounced "oh") and same thing applies when a vowel is followed by a vowel. The only time a vowel is pronounced softly is when it is followed by two or more consonants. I could be wrong though.
Does that make any sense at all?

(So we're clear, I pronounce it woah-way.)

[TMBJon]

Just because "way" makes up Al's initials doesn't mean it should be treated as its own "subword" within the acronym. The entire acronym is WOWAY, regardless of which words make it up. Once you create an acronym, the former associations that each letter had go away when trying to determine its pronunciation.

With that established, consider that there is a town in California called "Poway". And click here to hear how that town's name is pronounced.

Another example proving "wow-ay" is the correct pronunciation would be words like "wowing" or "wowed" as in "He's wowing the crowd." In that case, even though there is a vowel after the consonant, the syllable of "wow" is still pronounced as expected.

[Sailor-Polka-Moon]

I've read some fine theories and convincing arguments in this thread, but still...


*smears on Braveheart facepaint and dons a kilt*


YEH KIN TAKE OUR 'WHOA'S, BUT YE'LL NEVAH TAKE OUR FREEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!



_{/teamWHOA-way because it sorta just rolls off the tongue easier}

[Killingsworth]

This is turning into the Word Crimes thread all over again...