Nicaragua

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:07 AM -0700 4/4/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Nobody says "booeeant" for "bouyant," do they ?
>
>JL

Nobody I know, but since nobody else has come out of the closet, I
should confess that I do indeed have bisyllabic "buoy"s, pronounced
like the aforementioned Bowie knives, ['bu:i].   (This is actually a
long-standing word in my lexicon, since I was 4 or 5 and my family
started spending summers in Long Beach, L.I., where the areas you
were allowed to swim in were marked off by buoys.)  I don't see my
"boo-ee"/"boy-ant" alternation as any more remarkable than those in
e.g. "sign" vs. "signature" or "autumn"/"autumnal".   Oh, I also
share everyone else's bisyllabic version of "Lifebuoy", which
(besides being called that on all the commercials) is not really
compositional for me--it's more like "Lifeboy" with a funny
spelling--while "signal buoy" would retain the "boo-ee" pronunciation.

Larry

>Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: Nicaragua
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Apr 3, 2005, at 4:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>  Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>>  Subject: Re: Nicaragua
>>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  --------
>>
>>  I say "boy" for "buoy" too, and I'm over here.
>>
>>  TV ads for "Lifebuoy" soap always said "boy" also.
>>
>>  JL
>
>And as the more mature posters can attest, "Lifebuoy" was also
>pronounced "lifeboy" in ads and singing commercials ["Can't help
>singin' / 'Cause I know / Lifebuoy really stops / Be-e-e-e-e
>O-o-o-o-o-o!"] on the radio. I'm not sure how old I was when I first
>heard "buoy" pronounced as "Bowie," but I was old enough to find that
>pronunciation odd and I have never used it. Here's an old joke that I
>remember reading - in Readers Digest? - from some time in the 'Forties.
>
>A couple are celebrating their 25th anniversary and have just entered
>their room. Referring to the fact that the husband didn't carry her
>across the threshold, the wife says to him, "You're not as gallant as
>you were when I was a gal." The husband replies, "And you're not as
>buoyant as you were when I was a boy."
>
>-Wilson Gray
>
>>
>>
>>  Michael Quinion wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>  Poster: Michael Quinion
>>  Organization: World Wide Words
>>  Subject: Re: Nicaragua
>>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  --------
>>
>>  Barbara Need wrote:
>>
>>>  Sorry. An American saying this is pretentious. (I also consider the
>>>  pronunciation of _Jaguar_ with three syllables to be pretentious --
>>>  especially in a TV ad on American TV.)
>>
>>  Understood. Only joking. As another datum, I'd never say "jaguar"
>>  other than as three syllables. But then over here we say "buoy" like
>>  "boy", to redress the syllable count.
>>
>>  --
>>  Michael Quinion
>>  Editor, World Wide Words
>>  E-mail:
>>  Web:
>>
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