buoy [boy] ~ [BOO-ee]

[W Brewer]

WB:  <Buoy>: My basic down-home citation form is  [BOO-ee], but fluctuate
with lah-dee-dah [BOY]. However, my grandmother used <Lifebuoy> health
soap; had a pungent disinfectant smell to it. <Life[BOY]>. Guess it was
only for boys. Also the literary to <buoy up one's spirits> = [BOY].
Howmsoever, just flashed on a childhood visit to <Bowie> MD: still
pronounced [BOO-ee], acc. to Wikip. Which leads WB to <Bowie knife>, and
Wikip lists both [BOWE-ee] and [BOO-ee]. I want to say [BOO-ee knife].
 Strangely, I have in my head the <Jim Bowie> TV jingle, in which I hear
<Jim BOWE-ee>, but Youtube reality remembers it as:
<<Jim [BOO-ee], Jim [BOO-ee], he was a bold, adventurin' man,
<<J.B, J.B, battled for right with a powerful hand.
<<His blade was tempered and so was he,
<<Indestructible steel was he.
<<J.B, J.B, he was a fighter, a fearless, and mighty adventurin' man.>>
OTOH, <<Brit>> David Bowie, neither <<bold nor adventurin'>>, prescribes
[BOWE-ee], as per Wikip.
Dialect mixture before my very ears. More curiouser and more curiouser.

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