# How Do You Pronounce "Buddha"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330 "2010-11-03T14:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/21 "2010-11-03T22:05:07Z")
“Food-ah.” Probably because I first learned the term/name in Hebrew, which simply **has no** “wood” vowel sound. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/22 "2010-11-04T14:33:48Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > And if you rhyme “Brynner” with “in a,” it would mean absolutely nothing to you for me to try to explain it by saying something like “Brynner” rhymes with “inner” but not with “in a.” That’s why we use phonetic symbols. Quite, to me there is no difference between “inner” and “in a”. Nor in most cases, between an “ah” and “er” ending. But I guess even when learning the phonetic symbols you would have to, at some point, actually hear the unambiguous sound and then be given the relevant symbol? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/23 "2010-11-04T14:35:29Z")
Yes, it would be advisable to listen to samples. Some of the phonetic symbol guides do have links to sound files. I’ll try to dig up some examples. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/24 "2010-11-04T14:43:32Z")
Rhotic - Here’s U.S. public television news anchor Jim Lehrer pronouncing “Boehner” and “Barbour” in the introduction to this news clip – [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbMJDCPprE&feature=mpt%3Atop\_stories&playnext=1&videos=vlvzM7MNZGc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbMJDCPprE&feature=mpt%3Atop_stories&playnext=1&videos=vlvzM7MNZGc). Non-rhotic - And here – the BBC’s Paul Adams pronounces “Boehner” at about 20 seconds into the audio clip of “Listen to Paul Adams” – [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/11/101103\_midterms\_sl.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/11/101103_midterms_sl.shtml) Rhotic - [beɪ nɚ] Non-rhotic - [beɪ nə] ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/25 "2010-11-04T19:55:43Z")
Thanks acsenray, a little ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/26 "2010-11-05T04:23:12Z")
I voted the first one, “food-uh.” Can’t say I’ve ever heard it pronounced any other way. By English speakers, that is, as the Thais call him “Phoot.” (Hard P, rhymes with “toot” but a shorter vowel duration and a high tone.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/27 "2010-11-05T06:05:57Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Yes, it would be advisable to listen to samples. Some of the phonetic symbol guides do have links to sound files. I’ll try to dig up some examples. Just try the [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). You’ll have to follow the links to the actual pages form the chart (which you’ll have to scroll down to see) but then you’ll see play button that will play the audio file. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/28 "2010-11-05T11:13:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I can’t get your link to work, but I’m assuming you pronounce the “dh” as a single sound – the final consonant of _breathe_ or the initial one of _though_. Yes? It’s closer to the _other “th” sound, like in "breath_" or “dea_th_”, but not exactly. > [@](#): > > The IPA for that is ð, I think. It’s not \*quite \*the “th” sound, as it comes off the “d” (is that ellision? I don’t know. According to Wiki, the Hindi “dh” just doesn’t occur in English. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/29 "2010-11-05T15:20:41Z")
Correctly. 😛 It’s really difficult to transliterate Devanagari script into Hindi, but the “male from Nepal” on [this page](http://www.forvo.com/word/buddha/) gets the closest to the Sanskrit बुद्ध, which has since had a long vowel sound tacked on at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330/30 "2010-11-05T15:40:27Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s closer to the _other “th” sound, like in "breath_" or “dea_th_”, but not exactly. > It’s not \*quite \*the “th” sound, as it comes off the “d” (is that ellision? I don’t know. According to Wiki, the Hindi “dh” just doesn’t occur in English. If you’re talking about the sound as used in Hindi, then it has nothing to do with the two sounds represented as “the” in English orthography. It’s the sound I mentioned in post No. 5, the geminated, aspirated dental plosive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-buddha/559330.md?page=1)