ADS-L Digest - 21 Mar 2014 to 22 Mar 2014 (#2014-82)

[David Bowie]

From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> Subject: Re: buoy [boy] ~ [BOO-ee]
>
> Singin' in the bath tub
> Singin' for joy
> Livin' the life of Lifebuoy
> Can't help singing'
> 'Cause I know
> Lifebuoy really stops
> B.O.
>
> A singing commercial from the '40's, before it had ever occurred to any
> US-Anglophones that there was a reason to distinguish "buoy" from "boy" any
> more than there is a reason to distinguish arbitrarily among, e.g. "mete,"
> "meet," and "meat," simply because they aren't spelled the same.
FWIW, i (b. 1970, born and bred Southern Maryland) have always
pronounced 'buoy' as [bu.i], but i have always pronounced 'lifebuoy' to
rhyme with 'toy', so i don't see this advertisement as knockdown
evidence for the pronunciation of 'buoy'.

Also FWIW, my last name is pronounced like my pronunciation of 'buoy',
and not like either 'boy' or the last name of the rather more famous
person with the same name (at least as far as spelling goes).

David Bowie
[de.v?d bu.i] (at least when i'm feeling formal enough that i avoid
diphthongizing my tense vowels hardly if at all)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org