Depends on where you grew up. These things are regional. I grew up with “kyoo-pon” (learning it from adults–I mean, what kid has use for that word) and it wasn’t until later in life that I started changing. I don’t see how the “kyoo-pon” pronunciation is particularly cutesy or kid-like.
KWEE-wee? That’s one of those words where “pronounced as spelled” can mean ten things to ten different people.
Just another example of people from the coasts making fun of the central dialects.
I think you misunderstood me. I grew up with “kyoo-pon” as well. It was the “koo-pon” pronunciation that was considered kid-like.
Whoops. I swear your words were in a different order when I read them! 
Divorces have resulted from less than this.
Same here! I think I switched when I was about 20. A friend made fun of the way I said it (kyoo-pon), but it also occurred to me that koo-pon made more sense.
“kyoo”?? Like the first syllable of coyote?
Coo-pon, cue-pon, no one around here seems consistant, myself included.
I never even knew ‘Queue-pon’ was an option in pronunciation; I’ve only ever heard ‘Koo-pon’ used.
Haven’t you got that backwards? “Koo-pon” is how everyone, or nearly everyone used to pronounce it. “Queue-pon” seems to have taken over in the last 20 or 30 years.
Fifty years ago in America, some knowledge of the French language was almost a given, once one had reached a certain level of education; this probably helped reinforce the earlier pronunciation since “coo” is how you would pronounce the first syllable of the word. Now that French is not as widely studied as it once was, there’s really not any particular “hint” for most people telling them that “koopon” is correct.
Maybe in your little neck of the woods that is true, but coo-pon is a (not ‘the’, I’m not going there) standard pronunciation that has nothing to do with widdle-kid talk.
Me too. Pretty fucking disappointing.
Coo-pon here, from Arizona. My mom’s roommate (sort of like my second mom) pronounced it kyoo-pon and I always found it weird. She was the only one I ever heard say it like that before I grew up.
nm
I hate this question, because I can never remember what I do. With other words, it’s fairly easy, but not with this one, for some reason.
The y is a consonant. It’s another way to spell cue-pon or Qpon.
I’ll have to take your word for it because I cannot even begin to imagine how Ky could sound like Cue or Q.
Think of “kyoo” as in “thankyou.”
Really? How do you pronounce the letter q? To me it’s k+y+oo. /kju:/ in the IPA. I would have expect there to be some variation in how people pronounce u: part, but not the kj bit.
You’re not the only one. I can’t figure out how the first syllable of “coyote”, in either of its common pronunciations, is similar to the first syllable of “coupon,” in either of its common pronunciations. Doesn’t the first syllable of “coyote” rhyme with “sky”, or is there a pronunciation I’m unaware of?