I’ve a friend from Indiana who pronounces the Claus to rhyme with dental floss. Same with legal clause. But dog’s paws and the pause that refreshes both get z sounds.
Is this a regional thing? Or a friend thing?
I assumed it was a European/German thing to do it that way.
Like Herr Klaus or something.
But the German ‘Klaus’ is pronounced ‘klowss’ with the ow as in ‘ouch’, not as in ‘floss’.
Your options don’t make sense with me. “Paws” and “floss” don’t contain an “ah” vowel. Are you referring to the vowel sound or to the “s” vs. “z”?
I think your friend is weird.
Clause rhymes with paws.
I go with Claws if the old boy is not there. Face to face, I rhyme it with house. Claus is an old friend.
And ze Germans don’t call him Claus, they call him Sankt Niklaus. Maybe pronounce Nee-klouse? I always struggle with phonetization.
It’s always been as in paws around here.
This looks like a runaway train!
Maybe a spinoff poll could get more variety of replies with:
Sandy Claws
Santy Claws
Sinter Klaus (Clouse)
Sanny Kloz
Saint Nick
Kringle! We meet again! This time we finish it. There can be only one!
For me paws [pOz] doesn’t rhyme with klahz [klAz] and floss [flA.s] doesn’t rhyme with klahss [klas].
Claus [klOz] rhymes with paws but not with klahz.
People asking about the rhyming: In many parts of the country, the vowels in all those words are exactly the same. My reading of the OP is that they just want to know whether Claus ends with a /s/ sound or a /z/ sound.
Read more at the father-bother and caught-cot mergers on Wikipedia.
The s vs. z sound.
And the aw in paws and the o in floss both sound like “ah” to me
I remember the guy going undercover as Mr. Claus, rhymes with blouse, mouse and especially Strauss on one of those claymation specials when he was trying to find out why so many children did not believe in him. Other than then, he has always been Santa Claus, rhymes with jaws and paws, to me of NYC.
I grew up in Indiana pronouncing it to rhyme with paws. However, some of the folks that I worked with from closer to Chicago used the other pronounciation.
You interpret “klahz” and “klahss” as having different vowels? Interesting. What would be examples of real words illustrating the contrast in your accent?
I thought that’s what this was going to be between–Claws vs. Klowss.
The Year Without a Santa Claus! And that’s what came to mind for me, too.
“I beliiiiiiieeeeeeve in Santa Claus…”
Sandy Claws.