houynhnhm pronunciation

Cafe Society
1

I have yet to read Gulliver’s Travels so when I found “houynhnhm” in a puzzle this morning my first thought was “how do you pronounce that?”

No help online that I could find. Any idea?

2

Something like “whinnim,” I think…?

3

Thanks. Can somebody translate the effort here: Houyhnhnm - Wikipedia

4

From Wikipedia:

I think it’s supposed to sound like a horse’s neigh.

5

The problem is that you can only say the word properly if you are a horse – so if you are a human, you should try to sound like a horse whinnying.

6

Right. It’s the way you might imagine a talking horse saying the word - “human” with a whinny in it.

7

That’s how I was taught it…

8

Like Li’l Abner’s “Joe Btfsplk,” whose name was intended as the transliteration of a Bronx cheer (giving Al Capp quite the moment in TV interviews), the name has no English pronunciation, and should be sounded.

9

I agree with everyone who said it’s pronounced like a horse’s whinny.

10

Just like it’s spelled.

11

I must assume you caught the difference in spellings between the title and Wiki?

12

Seconded. Will they appear in the new Jack Black movie?

13

I was assuming they’re hhomynnhhms.

14

Czech

15

I just did the same puzzle!

For a slight hijack, any other sites you can recommend with similar puzzle? I find that a twice-weekly acrostic is not enough!!!

16
17

In my head it is kind of like that sound you make when you’re about to puke but the first couple spasms are just really strong dry heaves. But leave off the “oh god…” which inevitably follows.

18

Did you check out http://ecrostics.com/ ? I have worked every puzzle there, except for the “cryptic” ones. Reasonable quality and easy to work. I told a friend about the site and he said it won’t work on a Mac. Bummer.

I asked for similar sites some time ago and learned about Free mini Crostic Puzzle -- Semiweekly (MTh) -- All-Star Puzzles that way. I have worked all of them as well.

E-crostics is rather random in how often new puzzles appear, but there have been some really fun quotes to come along. Now and then one will be cool enough that I will get a screen shot of it and pass it along to others, since it’s rare that the quote will be available as a link.

If you want to work some of the better older puzzles, I have found that these constructors are the most fun:



Puzzles by John Kiernan (367)         Feb/2003-Oct/2010
Puzzles by Alice S. (245)             Sep/2003-May/2010
Puzzles by Roger Gabrielson (225)     Aug/2009-Oct/2010
Puzzles by Jim Sherman (218)          Oct/2002-Mar/2010
Puzzles by Judy Miller (161)          Apr/2002-Oct/2010
Puzzles by Kenneth Luker (79)         Jan/2000-Jul/2010

I need to update my list for Nov/2010.

19

For what little it’s worth, in the TV miniseries, Ted Danson used the pronunciation “Hwinnums.”

But I agree that Swift’s intention was to spell out the sound of a horse neighing phonetically.

20

Even a horse’s neigh is not immune to the powers of the IPA.

The effort on the wiki page results in hoo-ih-nuhm or hwih-nuhm