Re: Zooey v/s Joey
Pamela Deale (pdeale@sjm.infi.net)
Sun, 27 Jul 1997 18:57:04 -0700
David Alan wrote:
>
> >But then, the way we pronounce Zoo-ey here also rhymes with Joey.
> >Are we arguing over the Z-sound v/s J-sound or over o-sound (pot) v/s
> >oo-sound (put)?
> >My Zooey has a Z and an oo-sound.
> >Still rhymes with the way I'd pronounce Joey.
> >Feeling very phonetically challenged suddenly,
> >sonny
>
> I don't think anyone was saying that the "Z" was pronounced like a
> "J"... were they?
> When I first saw the book I automatically thought the name was
> pronounced like "Go - Pee", but as soon as my brain actually took the
> time to register that there were two "o"s, I thought it must be
> pronounced like "Blue - Key". I really like the first pronunciation
> better but I suspect that the second one is right. Besides, isn't
> "Zoey" like Go - Pee a girl's name?
Here's my 2 cents: I think it's pronounced to rhyme with "Go - Pee". If
you look up the word zoo in the dictionary you will see that it is
pronounced with a long double O (like sue, too, pooh). But, if you look
up zoological you'll see that it is pronounced with a long single O
(like toe, so, flow, etc). I think the Zoo-ey that Sonny is talking
about is the zoological pronounciation.
BUT, I did hear Maureen Corrigan the book reviewer on NPR's Fresh Air
pronounce it to rhyme with two - ee.
Pam