Listen up- there is no such word as "Walaa"!

[Lightnin']

_{(an excerpt from my mental abuse of people who post on another forum I visit)}

Also, "wha laa" is a meaningless phrase. It doesn't exist. To quote the great Inigo, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

"Voilà" is, I believe, the word you're looking for. Please, please, PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, if you don't know how a word is spelled, either look it up or don't freakin' use it!

[UrbanChic]

Furthermore, it should be Voilà Voilà, Washington.

[Duke]

Also, it is not "viola," as I have occasionally seen on these august boards. The viola is a musical instrument often played by such un-fascinating people as the lady I went out with on Mediocre Date #6 last year.

[Chastain86]

Originally Posted by Duke

Also, it is not "viola," as I have occasionally seen on these august boards. The viola is a musical instrument often played by such un-fascinating people as the lady I went out with on Mediocre Date #6 last year.

I occasionally say "viola" just to be different. I used it yesterday in a thread, and then immediately was besieged by people admonishing me for not saying "voila."

Ahhh, the power of the internet. All the thoughts with none of the inflection.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by Lightnin'

_{(an excerpt from my mental abuse of people who post on another forum I visit)}

Also, "wha laa" is a meaningless phrase. It doesn't exist. To quote the great Inigo, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

"Voilà" is, I believe, the word you're looking for. Please, please, PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, if you don't know how a word is spelled, either look it up or don't freakin' use it!

I could be wrong, but I imagine you are being whooshed. Many, MANY people pronounce it "walaa" simply because they know it's incorrect, and they're trying to be funny or clever.

So it's not so much that they don't know how it's spelled, it's that they're doing it on purpose. I'd suggest some thicker skin.

[Skammer]

Can I share with you an email I got today? Emphasis mine:

It’s a Boy!
Come help us celebrate the new edition to the Jane Doe's Family.
Thursday, May 6, 2004
Conference Room C1
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
We’re collecting for a gift card. If you would like to donate, please give your donation to [names omitted]. Jane is registered at Baby's R Us and Target.
Thank you and we hope to see you there!

This was supposedly written by an office professional. One who obviously needs a proofreader.

[yellowval]

Then there are the people who pronounce "beaucoup" as "boo-coo."
Q: What did the idiot say when he won the lottery?
A: Walaa! Boo-coo bucks!

[Yeticus Rex]

Y'all missed the memo....

"Woot!" is now the official choice of surprised expression.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by yellowval

Then there are the people who pronounce "beaucoup" as "boo-coo."
Q: What did the idiot say when he won the lottery?
A: Walaa! Boo-coo bucks!

Correction: It should be "Walaa! Boo-coo buck's!"

[yellowval]

Originally Posted by Munch

Correction: It should be "Walaa! Boo-coo buck's!"

Shit. Damn English degree follows ... uh, I mean follow's, me everywhere!

[Noone Special]

Originally Posted by Lightnin'

Listen up- there is no such word as "Walaa"!

Whadayamean there's no such word as "Walla"?

(OK, so the site's in Hebrew and you can't read it... but the name appears in English as well. Oh, and it's probably the #1 or #2 Portal in Israel, so it very definitely exists)

Originally Posted by Yeticus Rex

Y'all missed the memo....

"Woot!" is now the official choice of surprised expression.

And the word "Walla!" is actually basterdized Arabic, meaning (at least as used in Hebrew), well... something like "Woot!"

This post has been brought to you by "Truth is Stranger than Fiction"

Dani

[Sister Vigilante]

In the South, my relatives often referred to having "boo-coos" of things.

"He got boo-coos and boo-coos of presents for Christmas, didn't he?"

It wasn't until 10th grade French that my brain connected the two.

[Chance the Gardener]

Moi, je m'en fîche. Cet argotisme anglais «wa la» m'amuse bien. Quoique je sache bien que c'est «voilà,» j'aime bien dire «wa la» parfois. Mais jamais quand je parle français, bien sûr!

À l'autre main, je ne dis jamais «boucou,» comme on dit. Je ne dis jamais «beaucoup» quand je parle anglais non plus; j'ai horreur de cet argotisme. Je comprend que ce n'est que ton bête noir, Lightnin'. Malgré que je haïs «boucou,» je peux supporter «wa la.» Je parie que Munch a raison: il s'agit de développer de la chair plus épaise. Quand-même, j'ai beaucoup de bêtes noirs linguistiques, moi, et j'arrive à peine de les excuser moi-même!

Sans doute je n'ai point t'aidé. Désolé. Je te conseille de suivre mon exemple: quand quelqu'un doit utiliser un de ces choses agaçantes, donne-le une chataîgne! Ça ne va pas arrêter ces cochonneries, mais tu sentiras plus content!

[Khadaji]

I was recently told that a point was mute.

[Jpeg Jones]

Originally Posted by Duke

The viola is a musical instrument often played by such un-fascinating people...

Hey... I'm fascinating. Really, I am. Well, okay, at least I try to be.

[Fear Itself]

Anybody who says "walaa" is prolly a real looser...

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

I was recently told that a point was mute.

Well? The point wasn't actually speaking, was it?

[John Mace]

Yeah, my skin crawls when I hear someone say: wha-LAH!

But... to put a scientific spin on this, adults often do not hear sounds that are not native to their language. The consonant pair "vw" simply is not found in English, and so some people might not hear (or not hear well) the actual french pronunciation.

Reminds me of when I was in China trying to learn a few words.

Chinese person: Say [what sound to me like] "ZHR"
me: "ZHR"
CP: No, it's "ZHR"
me: "ZHR"?
CP: Let's try another word...

[danceswithcats]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

I was recently told that a point was mute.

That one has caused me to shove my paw into the air during a meeting.

It's moot which rhymes with boot which I'll insert in your toot unless you arrest this obstreperous vitiation of the language.

[Leaper]

On Married - With Children, Kelly and Bud succeed in picking a lock.

Kelly (opening the lock): Viola!
Bud: That's "voilà," Kel.
Kelly: Look, I failed Spanish, all right?

[Tamarin]

Originally Posted by Jean Grey

In the South, my relatives often referred to having "boo-coos" of things.

"He got boo-coos and boo-coos of presents for Christmas, didn't he?"

It wasn't until 10th grade French that my brain connected the two.

You think that's bad?

My family had a cat when I was about 10 years old. We named him Buku because my mother told us that "buku" meant "a lot" and he was a a lot of cat.

I didn't make the connection between buku and beaucoup until about 2 minutes ago while reading this thread.

[John Mace]

Yes, slaughtering foreign words like this is enough to make me want to commit hari-kari.

[Bruce_Daddy]

Originally Posted by John Mace

hari-kari.

Fantastic baseball announcer.

[Chefguy]

"Boo-coo" was the pronunciation in Viet Nam. It was used by Americans and Vietnamese alike. I don't know who got it from whom, but since the French occupied that country before we showed up, I would suspect it may have been the Vietnamese take on beaucoup. Or maybe they were just humoring us.

[Dewey Finn]

One of my company's vendors has an article on their website entitled "Five Tenants for Successful CRM Implementation." Clearly they meant tenets, but they made this mistake four or five times in a one-page PDF article.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

We all know it's pronounced "voy-ola"!


- damn that feels good

[Asteroide]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

"Boo-coo" was the pronunciation in Viet Nam. It was used by Americans and Vietnamese alike. I don't know who got it from whom, but since the French occupied that country before we showed up, I would suspect it may have been the Vietnamese take on beaucoup. Or maybe they were just humoring us.

Puzzled french speaker here - well, how would you pronounce beaucoup ?

Written out here, boo-coo looks about right, maybe I'm not getting how people actually say this... could be a slightly shorter boo, and sometimes a slight emphasis on the coo


As for voilà - that's a fun word in modern French - it generally doesn't mean anything, it's more like a kind of signal to say "this conversation is over", you kind of sing it when you're being nice, otherwise it can be pretty sharp.

Voilà

[furlibusea]

Puzzled french speaker here - well, how would you pronounce beaucoup ?

I always heard it Bow coo its a little different. French is spoken in a lot of places though and some of the accents and dialects can be quite different. I went to a french immersion school starting when I was four, and the nuns the school system brought in from France sounded alot different than my Quebequois college roomate. I wonder if the Boo Coo pronunciation isn't what 500 years and 3000 miles did to Cajun pronunciation of French?

[dantheman]

Originally Posted by Munch

I could be wrong, but I imagine you are being whooshed. Many, MANY people pronounce it "walaa" simply because they know it's incorrect, and they're trying to be funny or clever.

So it's not so much that they don't know how it's spelled, it's that they're doing it on purpose. I'd suggest some thicker skin.

I seem to remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which he did a magic trick and used those generic magic words.. "Hocus-pocus, abracadabra, wallaa! The trick is done!"

So I blame Bugs.

[calm kiwi]

A friend of mine has lived in NZ for nearly 20 years. She is Austrian, she is also a "trolley dolly" for Air NZ. Her English is very good. Perfect even. She has her accent though. To her, villagers will always be willagers and windows will always be vindows.

When the language is not one native to us we will talk funny

[Johnny L.A.]

Incidentally (because someone who had just learned to swim, drowned yesterday while wading alone in a lake), "drownded" and "drownding" are not words.

_{Didn't hear them on the report, but I've heard them enough to be reimded of them by the story.}

[WernhamHogg]

I think it is more common (at least in my region) to say something like "boohoo" bucks, about which word's etymology I had pondered... thanks for clearing it up. Boohoo is further derived from boocoo. And the people who use it have no idea what they are saying, I imagine. It is not done ironically, but just they heard it somewhere and repeat it.

[AHunter3]

Dewey Finn:

One of my company's vendors has an article on their website entitled "Five Tenants for Successful CRM Implementation." Clearly they meant tenets, but they made this mistake four or five times in a one-page PDF article.

Yep, sing it again. I'll join you on the refrain, I've sung that song before:

The elements that comprise your beliefs don't pay rent.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Asteroide

Puzzled french speaker here - well, how would you pronounce beaucoup ?

Written out here, boo-coo looks about right, maybe I'm not getting how people actually say this... could be a slightly shorter boo, and sometimes a slight emphasis on the coo


As for voilà - that's a fun word in modern French - it generally doesn't mean anything, it's more like a kind of signal to say "this conversation is over", you kind of sing it when you're being nice, otherwise it can be pretty sharp.

Voilà

I wouldn't claim to be a French speaker at this point, but graduated from the Foreign Service Institute's French language course some years ago, as did my wife, with some degree of fluency. The teachers were French and Francophone. We then lived in a Francophone country for two years. I don't recall ever hearing the word pronounced as "boocoo", but more like "bo-coo", although that's not really phonetically correct either.

However, I never focused on that particular word, since generally when speaking or hearing the language, I was busy trying to get the verb right and to be understood.

[Asteroide]

Thinking about the beaucoup business - I wonder if people are getting it mixed up with beau pronounced as in beau and arrow.

In France beaucoup is pronounced sort of like book-oo - with a slightly shorter first syllable...

Quoi qu'il en soit, they talk much French in Alaska ?

[saramamalana]

No no, Khadaji, the point is moo.

My research professor kept saying today "critical regiont." This is a very smart woman, and it baffled me that she was adding the t on the end of the word.

[SnakeSpirit]

Originally Posted by yellowval

Then there are the people who pronounce "beaucoup" as "boo-coo."

val, actually some of that is dialect differentiation. In English we would say it so it sounds 'bow koo,' Frankifying it a bit by dropping the 'p,' but the French pronounciation is actually closer to 'bow koo.'
And that depends more on the DILECT of French you are speaking (or hearing).
Plus, it depends on the dialect of whatever language YOU speak that will depend on how you HEAR it.

To wit: (or should that be too It?)
In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, near the tri-border area with Cambodia (now Kampuchea because of dialect correction) and Laos there is a mixed population (or was, in 1968, anyway) consisting of Cambodians, Laotions, Vietnamese and Montagnyards. Because of the French occupation of that area for time out of mind the languages were somewhat mixed, and dialects were colored by the origin of the speaker.

A favorite phrase in those days was "You beaucoup din ka dau."* This was a mix of the French 'beaucoup' meaning very, or extremely, and the Vietnamese 'din ka dau'* meaning 'crazy,' literal translation meant something about 'the head' being messed up, and the English 'you' meaning... well, you get my drift...
* Inflection and spelling of Vietnamese words not guaranteed, I lost my dictionary in Polei-kleng.

Now, the Vietnamese said (pseudo phonetic): "U boo koo dinka dau"
American soldiers from the NorthEast said: "Yew beau coo dinky dau"
and American soldiers from the South said "Yiew boo koo dinky dow"

So what way is the right way?

Only a linguist could get it all "right."

signed,

Suh Nayk

[SnakeSpirit]

Originally Posted by Snakespirit

In English we would say it so it sounds 'bow koo,' Frankifying it a bit by dropping the 'p,' but the French pronounciation is actually closer to 'bow koo.'

OOps, he meant the French is closer to 'boo coo'

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Asteroide

Thinking about the beaucoup business - I wonder if people are getting it mixed up with beau pronounced as in beau and arrow.

In France beaucoup is pronounced sort of like book-oo - with a slightly shorter first syllable...

Quoi qu'il en soit, they talk much French in Alaska ?

Malheurusement, seulement dans chez moi! Cretins!

[Shirley Ujest]

I would like to say something:

SPOILER:

Whilst!

[SnakeSpirit]

Originally Posted by dantheman

I seem to remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which he did a magic trick and used those generic magic words.. "Hocus-pocus, abracadabra, wallaa! The trick is done!"

So I blame Bugs.

With teeth like Bugs has the 'v' and 'w' sounds are easily mixed up.
Try it, stick your two fingers between your teeth and upper lip and try to say 'Voilà' - the 'v' gets muted, and it comes out closer to a hum with waalaa.

In the interest of social sciences.......
And in the interest of rabbits with disabilities (rwd) everywhere.

[leafrog]

Originally Posted by skutir

I think it is more common (at least in my region) to say something like "boohoo" bucks, about which word's etymology I had pondered... thanks for clearing it up. Boohoo is further derived from boocoo. And the people who use it have no idea what they are saying, I imagine. It is not done ironically, but just they heard it somewhere and repeat it.

Aren't skutir and the OP basically describing one of the ways a language, English in particular, evolves?

So many of our words are borrowed from or have roots in other languages. It gives us a lot of ways to express ourselves.

I guess I don't see this as a bad thing.

and, as I often say at the end of a conversation;

eh wah la

[yellowval]

Fine. Say "boo-coo" if you want to then. In the five years or so that I took French in high school and college, I was always taught that it was more like "bow-coo," (which, btw, is how my American Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says to pronounce it, too) From now on I'm just going to pronounce it like a real American should and say "boo-coop."

[dantheman]

Originally Posted by Snakespirit

With teeth like Bugs has the 'v' and 'w' sounds are easily mixed up.
Try it, stick your two fingers between your teeth and upper lip and try to say 'Voilà' - the 'v' gets muted, and it comes out closer to a hum with waalaa.

In the interest of social sciences.......
And in the interest of rabbits with disabilities (rwd) everywhere.

Are you trying to tell me he was really saying "voila"?? Can't agree with that. Part of his personality was mispronouncing words. Example: Maroon instead of moron.

[AHunter3]

yellowval:

I was always taught that it was more like "bow-coo"

But would "bow-coo" be pronounced as "bough coo", or as "beau coo"?

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by AHunter3

yellowval:

But would "bow-coo" be pronounced as "bough coo", or as "beau coo"?

It would be pronounced as "beaucoup".