"Ukulele" = "Oo koo lay lay" - right?

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toque

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Just starting out with Uke -- want to pronounce name of instrument correctly. I've seen many different spellings and heard many more different pronunciations. Which is correct? I'm thinking it should be "Oo koo lay lay" -- right? And it's spelled Ukulele -- right?

Sorry for such mundane questions -- just want to avoid being seen as a "Rube Noob" ;)
 
I'm not a native Hawaiian and I feel totally weird saying it that way. I can't (and won't) pull it off. For me, it is, and always will be yew-kah-lay-lee.
 
Yes, the correct pronunciation of the Hawaiian word is oo-koo-lay-lay. And out of respect for the language, when I am in Hawaii, or speaking to anyone from Hawaii, that is how I say it. Back in CA though, I usually call it a uke.

If I call it oo-koo-lay-lay in CA, I usually get blank stares from people that have no idea what I am talking about. It just results in me having to sigh and say you-ka-lay-lee. It is just easier for me to stick to uke on the mainland, and the correct way in Hawaii.

Edit: I guess I stand corrected. I had been told by my old instructor (who lives in Hawaii and is married to a Native Hawaiian) that it was oo-koo-lay-lay. I see a lot of people here are saying it is leh-leh not lay-lay. I admit, my ear is not fine tuned enough to have picked up the difference, but it looks like I was mis pronouncing it all along. ;)
 
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I pronounce it oo-koo-lay-lay. I understand the variation goes back a long way and many folks only know the incorrect pronunciation. However, out of respect for the language, I choose to pronounce it correctly. I think it has to do with hearing my Hungarian last name mispronounced my whole life and loathing it every time.
 
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I prefer Ooh-cool-ay-lay.

I struggle with saying it right, but the Hawaiians seem to prefer it when I do.
 
I'm "for" the Hawaiian pronunciation, but rarely use it because it results in dead silence. My word is "uke". And when someone says, "Is that a you-ka-lay-lee?" I say yes.

To complicate the matter, if you listen carefully to Aldrine's videos, he says something very much like "Oo-koo-luh-luh." Incidentally, that's also how I heard it pronounced in Austria. :D

Maybe we should spend more time playing it and let the word take care of itself?
 
mikelz777 said:
I'm not a native Hawaiian and I feel totally weird saying it that way. I can't (and won't) pull it off. For me, it is, and always will be yew-kah-lay-lee.
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wickedwahine11 said:
Yes, the correct pronunciation of the Hawaiian word is oo-koo-lay-lay. And out of respect for the language, when I am in Hawaii, or speaking to anyone from Hawaii, that is how I say it. Back in CA though, I usually call it a uke.

If I call it oo-koo-lay-lay in CA, I usually get blank stares from people that have no idea what I am talking about. It just results in me having to sigh and say you-ka-lay-lee. It is just easier for me to stick to uke on the mainland, and the correct way in Hawaii.
Click to expand...

Agree completely. I lived in Hawaii as a kid and can pronounce the language quite well, but frankly, I feel like a bit of a pretentious *$$ if I say "oo-koo-leh-leh" here in California unless I am speaking to a Hawaiian. Same reasoning as saying I'm from Santa (like Claus) Monica (like Lewinsky) rather than Sahn-ta Moh-nee-kah, even though I speak Spanish... :)
 
KevinV said:
I understand the variation goes back a long way and many folks only know the incorrect pronunciation. However, out of respect for the language, I choose to pronounce it correctly.
Click to expand...

Oo-koo-lay-lay isn't the "correct" pronunciation but it's the pronunciation born out of the Hawaiian culture. Yew-kah-lay-lee is just as "correct" a pronunciation born out of the mainland. What's the correct way to pronounce Paris? Pair-iss or Pa-ree? Both are "correct" depending on where you come from. I'm sure this concept could be extended to any number of words.
 
toque said:
And it's spelled Ukulele -- right?
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In American English, that seems to be the most common spelling, but I see folks from the UK spell it ukelele from time to time. I looked this up at one point and found a source that stated the latter was considered archaic in the US, which made sense - I've seen that spelling in a lot of early 20th century print, along with some even more creative spelling such as eukalale and ukalele.
 
I respect the history of the instrument, I say Oo-koo-lay-lay. I do not feel right if I hold an instrument and play it, but I do not really know what exactly is in my hands. And thats just me, I won't apply it on others and force them to think the same as me.

Add: People around me all say "You-ko-le-lee"
 
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Pronounce it any way you like. Just bear in mind how stupid non-Hawaiians sound when they pronounce "Hawaii" with a "v", or over-emphasise the glottal stop in Hawaiian words. My general rule of thumb is; if you want to show respect to native Hawaiians (and let's face it, how many of us have actually met a real one, rather than a retired orthodontist from Sacramento who moved to the islands a year ago and has decided he's now a "native"), don't butcher their language.
 
I say it the only way my Alabama Belle accent works - uuuuuuukulaylee.... I've been to Hawaii and it is a beautiful culture and language, but I don't have the ear for the pronunciation. I think it sounds beautiful when the word is pronounced correctly by someone who can enunciate it correctly.
 
The Big Kahuna said:
Pronounce it any way you like. Just bear in mind how stupid non-Hawaiians sound when they pronounce "Hawaii" with a "v", or over-emphasise the glottal stop in Hawaiian words. My general rule of thumb is; if you want to show respect to native Hawaiians (and let's face it, how many of us have actually met a real one, rather than a retired orthodontist from Sacramento who moved to the islands a year ago and has decided he's now a "native"), don't butcher their language.
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On the subject of the glottal stop, I like to point out, usually to no avail, that the Hawaiian pronunciation of 'ukulele includes the glottal stop at the beginning of the word, which is why you sometimes see it spelled with the 'okina, the apostrophe-like letter. A glottal stop is the consonant that we use in English when we say 'uh-oh', the t-like sound between 'uh' and 'oh'. This means that you should say "a 'ukulele" instead of "an ukulele", with a glottal stop between the 'a' and the 'oo' sound. That is, if you want to be a purist about it, or at least less of a language butcher.
 
Dougf said:
On the subject of the glottal stop, I like to point out, usually to no avail, that the Hawaiian pronunciation of 'ukulele includes the glottal stop at the beginning of the word, which is why you sometimes see it spelled with the 'okina, the apostrophe-like letter. A glottal stop is the consonant that we use in English when we say 'uh-oh', the t-like sound between 'uh' and 'oh'. This means that you should say "a 'ukulele" instead of "an ukulele", with a glottal stop between the 'a' and the 'oo' sound. That is, if you want to be a purist about it, or at least less of a language butcher.
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I had to chime in here - I have done some research and there is still debate over the okina - `uku is a small louse or flea, and uku is a gift. The okina is a consonant in the Hawaiian language. Lele means to jump, to fly, to travel.

So some origins say that it is `ukulele - jumping flea - describing the motion of the fingers on the fretboard.
I also heard that Queen Liliuokalani said she received her instrument as a gift from a faraway place - Portugal. ukulele - gift that traveled.

I like both stories and I am not exactly sure which one is true. I leave the okina off and I pronounce it ooo - koo - leh - leh.

I do NOT correct people if they pronounce it YOU kah lay lay - that's just how they say it, whatever!
 
This reminds me of the debate over how one should pronounce the names of people whose names are in languages other than English. If a person is named Jesus and pronounces his own name "Hay-soos" (the way this word would be pronounced in Spanish), I don't feel like I should be calling him "Gee-sus" simply because that's how the word would be pronounced in my language. (For what it's worth, the Latin pronounciation of Jesus, as in Jesus of Nazareth, is ""Ee-ay-soos," and the pronounciation of his name in his own language, Hebrew, would be "Yay-soos," so people who pray to "Gee-sus" routinely pronounce his name differently than he or the earliest Roman followers pronounced it.) There are lots of other examples of foreign names being pronounces differently in their own language, like Seamus (pronounced "Shame-us," not "Seem-us") and Angel (usually pronounced "Ahn-hel," not "Ayn-gel"). So when I'm in Hawaii or talking with Hawaiians or people who are immersed in Hawaiian culture, I say "oo-koo-lay-lay," which is how this Hawaiian word is pronounced in Hawaiian. With other people in the US, I generally say "you-koo-lay-lee" or "yuke."

There appears to be a similar, although less visible, debate over how to pronounce the name "Hawai'i." I had an oo-koo-lay-lay instructor who insisted that in Hawaiian songs, we pronounced the work "Hawai'i" as "Hah-vah-ee-ee." His reasoning was that the ai was not a dipthong so was pronounced "ah-ee" and that the okina created a second, separate "ee" sound after the "ah-ee" sound created by the letters "ai." But even this instructor, who was born in Hawai'i, would say "Hah-vah-ee" or even "Hah-why-ee" when not singing.
 
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mds725 said:
This reminds me of the debate over how one should pronounce the names of people whose names are in languages other than English.
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The funny thing about the names debate - my first name* is French, and I pronounce it that way when I introduce myself to people (with an ä like in father). Almost without fail, they completely ignore the way I pronounced it and proceed to pronounce it the American way (with an a like in marry). And I really, really don't care either way - as long as they are remotely close, I'm cool with it.

And I kinda feel the same way about "ukulele" - I'm just happy when someone knows what one is, regardless of how they say it or spell it :)

*Which some of you know is not Jane, and I'll thank you not to disclose it here.
 
mikelz777 said:
Oo-koo-lay-lay isn't the "correct" pronunciation but it's the pronunciation born out of the Hawaiian culture. Yew-kah-lay-lee is just as "correct" a pronunciation born out of the mainland. What's the correct way to pronounce Paris? Pair-iss or Pa-ree? Both are "correct" depending on where you come from. I'm sure this concept could be extended to any number of words.
Click to expand...

I'm a Yew-kah-lay-lee man myself. Like you said before it's like a lot of things...porschephiles, and I guess Germans like to say "Porshuh", most including me say 'Porsh". I heard a Porsche factory driver say Porsh and I figured that was what I'd go with

So, go with what you like!
 
I decided to be mute last night so I am currently not pronouncing it at all.
 
janeray1940 said:
Agree completely. I lived in Hawaii as a kid and can pronounce the language quite well, but frankly, I feel like a bit of a pretentious *$$ if I say "oo-koo-leh-leh" here in California unless I am speaking to a Hawaiian. Same reasoning as saying I'm from Santa (like Claus) Monica (like Lewinsky) rather than Sahn-ta Moh-nee-kah, even though I speak Spanish... :)
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This is a long video but the applicable part is the first three minutes or so...


John
 
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