In William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair, Amelia Sedley’s older brother Joseph is often called “Jos” (particularly by his father and George Osborne).
What’s the proper way to pronounce “Jos”?
Rhyming with “loss”?
Or with “nose”?
Or with “gross”?
I figure I have to ask this question now, because I suspect that once the movie comes out, it’s going to set the standard for the next twenty years or so. But before that happens, I’d like to get the opinion of the great minds on the SDMB.
I’m reading it now, and FWIW, I’m pronouncing it “Joss” in my head.
I’m also reading it (in time for the movie), and I hear it as rhymes with “nose”, since it’s short for “Joseph”.
I guess I’m reading it as “Joss” because Joss is a not uncommon diminutive for Joseph; I’d just assumed it was spelled differently in VF.
There are already at least one film version from the 30’s and two TV miniseries of Vanity Fair. In the one I have on tape, the TV series from the mid-'80’s, they pronounce Jos as “Joss,”–to rhyme with “Loss,” but with a slightly shorter ‘o’–and that’s the way I read it whenever I read the book.
This is the first I’ve heard of the movie! Sounds like fun. I read the book several years ago, and I mentally pronounced “Jos” to rhyme with “gross.”