# Is it pronounced "Donkey" or "Dunkey"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602 "2009-05-06T23:25:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/21 "2009-05-07T03:17:10Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I’m remembering a line from some work of literature where a character differentiates between city folk and country folk by noting that the latter say “Sweetly Sings the Dunkey.” That would be _To Kill a Mockingbird_. I had the impression that it was less about city vs. country folk than it was about social class, but I guess the two sets of categories overlap, to some extent. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/22 "2009-05-07T03:17:40Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > I have heard many people pronounce frog with the same “og” sound as cog, as in a gear system. The same og sound as in toggle like the switch. > > I pronounce it fr aw(as in aw, isn’t that a cute frog) g. > One syllable Yeah, I don’t hear a “w” in it. Or in cog, dog, or Og. I’m having trouble imagining a “w” in there without it sounding like a two-year-old trying to pronounce the word frog… Anyway, if someone said something about a “dunkey” I’d assume that Dunkin Donuts has added a new item to their menu and gave it an obnoxious name. It would take context before it would occur to me that they might mean the animals like the ones that live down the street from me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/23 "2009-05-07T04:11:10Z")
A lot of the o-as-o-sound words are, I suspect, spelling pronunciations. Most people I know say “mongrel” and “warmonger” as if there were o sounds, but quite a lot say “mungrel” and “warmunger.” The latter is more likely to be historically correct, I think; obviously, if you go far enough back it’s an o sound, and both pronunciations are accepted today, but I suspect that certain historical [o]s in labial polysyllabic contexts (around m, w) shifted to s until the orthography brought them back to an archaic pronuciation. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/24 "2009-05-07T13:58:04Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > That would be _To Kill a Mockingbird_. I had the impression that it was less about city vs. country folk than it was about social class, but I guess the two sets of categories overlap, to some extent. I was thinking it was _To Kill a Mockingbird_, but I just read it with my son a couple of months ago and was sure I would have remembered it. And, you’re right, it was more about social class – perhaps in the context of Walter Cunningham drowning his dinner in syrup. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/25 "2009-05-07T16:06:07Z")
Correction to my earlier post: The donkey / dunkey thing would explain why “monkey” and “donkey” don’t rhyme, not why “donkey” they do for some people. In that case my guess is it’s an analogy with the more common “monkey.” ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/26 "2009-05-07T16:20:23Z")
If it’s pronounced “dunkey”, you could get one, call it “Hotay,” and go tilt at windmills. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/27 "2009-05-07T19:34:54Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > If it’s pronounced “dunkey”, you could get one, call it “Hotay,” and go tilt at windmills. Don’t be an ass. “Donkey Hotay” makes much more sense for _ **Don** _ Quixote. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/28 "2009-05-07T21:00:02Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Shrek says dunkey, doesn’t he? That was my first thought–the only place I remember hearing it as dunkey was in the movie Shrek. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/29 "2009-05-07T22:04:04Z")
This topic came up in a recent “rhyme time” game thread in which **Dolores Reborn** posted a clue that was intended to evoke the response “honky donkey”. I answered correctly, then noted that I pronounce “donkey” to rhyme with “monkey” (munky) as opposed to “honky” (hawngkee). Other words that have popped up in this discussion, and how I say them: Frogs – Frawgs (rhymes with _dogs_, _hogs_, _logs_, etc., but not _cogs_ (which sounds more like “kahgs”). _Cot_ (kaht) and _caught_ (cawt) definitely have different vowel sounds. So do _lot_ (laht) and _cloth_ (clawth). The _o_ in both _mongrel_ and _warmonger_ has an “ah” sound. I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/30 "2009-05-07T23:13:31Z")
Wow, every time we have one of these threads I learn more and more about how weird English is. I remember a friend who was born in New York trying to explain marry/Mary/merry, and also Aaron/Erin. Now there’s lot and cloth. Seriously weird. BTW, I pronounce it dawn-key while my mom (Philly native) says dun-key. ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/31 "2009-05-08T01:14:19Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Well, my dad is from Queens, New York. He says “Dunkey.” He also says “Harrah movie” instead of “Horror movie” and “Harrahble” instead of “Horrible.” This is exactly why you and your father pronounce “donkey” differently. The “dunkey” pronunciation is an old-timey (though not that old, not like “toidy-toid” for “thirty-third”) that you don’t here much more in NYC, but I have heard “The Brunx” for “The Bronx” a few times from older speakers. The other features you mention – the dropping of the r at the end of “horror” and the pronunciation of the o before an intervocalic r (that is, an r that is pronounced between two vowels) in “horror” and “horrible” turning into an a sound, as in “cot” or “farm” (vowels tend to sound weird before r’s) – are still common today in the NYC area. Even the programmed voice for the NJ Transit trains say “Arange” instead of “Orange.” (There are a group of towns in north Jersey – South Orange, West Orange, East Orange, and Orange – that the train I take to see my mom goes through.) I work on NYC English, so I’m just full of fun facts about it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/32 "2009-05-08T02:22:47Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > That was my first thought–the only place I remember hearing it as dunkey was in the movie Shrek. And Mike Meyers/Shrek is doing a pseudo-scots accent. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/33 "2009-05-08T03:24:08Z")
> [@RedRosesForMe](#): > > I remember a friend who was born in New York trying to explain marry/Mary/merry, and also Aaron/Erin. Oh, tell me about it. After moving to New York at 24, it took me years to learn to say these words so people could understand me. Then I came back here at 49, and had to un-learn everything. Then there’s the “soda” vs. “pop” thing. Anyway . . . Donkey is “dawnkey” and frog is “frawg.” Cot is “caht” and caught is “cawt.” ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/34 "2009-05-08T04:02:30Z")
Not to derail this thread too much, but my dad, who is in his 70’s and from Brooklyn, uses the word “dunkey” very specifically as a slur against the Irish. Donkey is a beast of burden; dunkey is a low-class Irish person. Anyone else heard this? Maybe it’s not something that’s used anymore, but that’s the only context in which I’ve heard a person say “dunkey.” ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/35 "2009-05-08T05:58:25Z")
If you get into your time machine (or just turn a rerun on TV), you’ll hear Bob Denver use the dun-key pronunciation on _Gilligan’s Island_. Of course, IRL, he was a WV native. I\* say dawn-key but some of the older relatives in East Tennessee pronounce it to rhyme with monkey. \*Grew up in northern Indiana, have lived in middle Tennessee for years. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/36 "2009-05-08T06:34:23Z")
My mother is from North Jersey, although she had the accent trained out of her when she went off to grad school in California. I remember her telling me that she grew up saying “dunkey”. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602/37 "2009-05-08T12:29:31Z")
Now that i think about it neither. Something half way in between. Dahnkey [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pronounced-donkey-or-dunkey/495602.md?page=1)