Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
1. The word "buoy" - ie a floating marker at sea - which the reader pronounced "boo-ee". In British English the word is pronounced the same as the word "boy".
2. The word "quay", which the reader pronounced "kway". Again, in British English it's pronounced "key".
|
Interstingly the pronunciation seem to be close to the French word for these two ie (buoy == boué with pronounce boo-ay and quay == quai that pronounce kay (but not key that is more like ki)
By the way the "official google pronunciation" is "key" :
http://www.google.fr/dictionary?sour...langpair=fr|en
and "boy" :
http://www.google.fr/dictionary?lang...uée&hl=fr&aq=f
PS: if you want to try to ear the french pronunciation go here :
http://www.acapela-group.fr/text-to-...tive-demo.html
in the field "Tapez votre texte ici :" put "bouée" or "quai" and click on the "OK!" buttun to ear it ^^
edit:
I search in the Oxford dictionary for word origins :
Quay is from old french kay (
http://www.askoxford.com:80/concise_oed/quay?view=uk ) which is an old form of the actual "quai" word
And it seems that the french "bouée" come from the same word in dutch : "boeye" cf
buoy - AskOxford -
bouée - CNRTL
I really found etymology a fun and exciting subject ^^
(and sorry if all I said was already sayed, the topic is really too long)