# Listen up- there is no such word as "Walaa"! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2004, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516 "2004-04-28T17:15:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tamarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamarin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/21 "2004-04-29T01:07:53Z")
> [@Jean Grey](#): > > In the South, my relatives often referred to having “boo-coos” of things. > > “He got boo-coos and boo-coos of presents for Christmas, didn’t he?” > > It wasn’t until 10th grade French that my brain connected the two. You think that’s bad? My family had a cat when I was about 10 years old. We named him Buku because my mother told us that “buku” meant “a lot” and he was a _a lot_ of cat. I didn’t make the connection between buku and beaucoup until about 2 minutes ago while reading this thread. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/22 "2004-04-29T01:11:33Z")
Yes, slaughtering foreign words like this is enough to make me want to commit hari-kari. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/23 "2004-04-29T01:14:59Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > hari-kari. Fantastic baseball announcer. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/24 "2004-04-29T02:12:14Z")
“Boo-coo” was the pronunciation in Viet Nam. It was used by Americans and Vietnamese alike. I don’t know who got it from whom, but since the French occupied that country before we showed up, I would suspect it may have been the Vietnamese take on _beaucoup_. Or maybe they were just humoring us. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/25 "2004-04-29T02:31:34Z")
One of my company’s vendors has an article on their website entitled “Five Tenants for Successful CRM Implementation.” Clearly they meant tenets, but they made this mistake four or five times in a one-page PDF article. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/26 "2004-04-29T02:36:36Z")
We all know it’s pronounced “voy-ola”! :smack: - damn that feels good ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/27 "2004-04-29T10:27:17Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > “Boo-coo” was the pronunciation in Viet Nam. It was used by Americans and Vietnamese alike. I don’t know who got it from whom, but since the French occupied that country before we showed up, I would suspect it may have been the Vietnamese take on _beaucoup_. Or maybe they were just humoring us. Puzzled french speaker here - well, how _would_ you pronounce _beaucoup_ ? Written out here, _boo-coo_ looks about right, maybe I’m not getting how people actually say this… could be a slightly shorter _boo_, and sometimes a slight emphasis on the _coo_ As for _voilà_ - that’s a fun word in modern French - it generally doesn’t mean anything, it’s more like a kind of signal to say “this conversation is over”, you kind of sing it when you’re being nice, otherwise it can be pretty sharp. Voilà ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/28 "2004-04-29T10:57:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Puzzled french speaker here - well, how would you pronounce beaucoup ? I always heard it Bow coo its a little different. French is spoken in a lot of places though and some of the accents and dialects can be quite different. I went to a french immersion school starting when I was four, and the nuns the school system brought in from France sounded alot different than my Quebequois college roomate. I wonder if the Boo Coo pronunciation isn’t what 500 years and 3000 miles did to Cajun pronunciation of French? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/29 "2004-04-29T12:32:40Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I could be wrong, but I imagine you are being whooshed. Many, MANY people pronounce it “walaa” simply because they know it’s incorrect, and they’re trying to be funny or clever. > > So it’s not so much that they don’t know how it’s spelled, it’s that they’re doing it on purpose. I’d suggest some thicker skin. I seem to remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which he did a magic trick and used those generic magic words… “Hocus-pocus, abracadabra, wallaa! The trick is done!” So I blame Bugs. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/30 "2004-04-29T13:09:38Z")
A friend of mine has lived in NZ for nearly 20 years. She is Austrian, she is also a “trolley dolly” for Air NZ. Her English is very good. Perfect even. She has her accent though. To her, villagers will always be willagers and windows will always be vindows. When the language is not one native to us we will talk funny 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/31 "2004-04-29T13:17:34Z")
Incidentally (because someone who had just learned to swim, drowned yesterday while wading alone in a lake), “drownded” and “drownding” are not words. [sub]Didn’t hear them on the report, but I’ve heard them enough to be reimded of them by the story.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/32 "2004-04-29T13:24:05Z")
I think it is more common (at least in my region) to say something like “boohoo” bucks, about which word’s etymology I had pondered… thanks for clearing it up. Boohoo is further derived from boocoo. And the people who use it have no idea what they are saying, I imagine. It is not done ironically, but just they heard it somewhere and repeat it. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/33 "2004-04-29T15:36:00Z")
**Dewey Finn** : > [@](#): > > One of my company’s vendors has an article on their website entitled “Five Tenants for Successful CRM Implementation.” Clearly they meant tenets, but they made this mistake four or five times in a one-page PDF article. Yep, sing it again. I’ll join you on the refrain, I’ve sung that song before: [The elements that comprise your beliefs don’t pay rent.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=93866) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/34 "2004-04-29T18:11:51Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > Puzzled french speaker here - well, how _would_ you pronounce _beaucoup_ ? > > Written out here, _boo-coo_ looks about right, maybe I’m not getting how people actually say this… could be a slightly shorter _boo_, and sometimes a slight emphasis on the _coo_ > As for _voilà_ - that’s a fun word in modern French - it generally doesn’t mean anything, it’s more like a kind of signal to say “this conversation is over”, you kind of sing it when you’re being nice, otherwise it can be pretty sharp. > > Voilà I wouldn’t claim to be a French speaker at this point, but graduated from the Foreign Service Institute’s French language course some years ago, as did my wife, with some degree of fluency. The teachers were French and Francophone. We then lived in a Francophone country for two years. I don’t recall ever hearing the word pronounced as “boocoo”, but more like “bo-coo”, although that’s not really phonetically correct either. However, I never focused on that particular word, since generally when speaking or hearing the language, I was busy trying to get the verb right and to be understood. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/35 "2004-04-29T23:52:08Z")
Thinking about the _beaucoup_ business - I wonder if people are getting it mixed up with _beau_ pronounced as in _beau and arrow_. In France _beaucoup_ is pronounced sort of like book-oo - with a slightly shorter first syllable… Quoi qu’il en soit, they talk much French in Alaska ? ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/36 "2004-04-30T00:58:21Z")
No no, **Khadaji** , the point is _moo_. 🙂 My research professor kept saying today _“critical regiont.”_ This is a very smart woman, and it baffled me that she was adding the t on the end of the word. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/37 "2004-04-30T01:06:02Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > Then there are the people who pronounce “beaucoup” as “boo-coo.” val, actually some of that is dialect differentiation. In English we would say it so it sounds ‘bow koo,’ Frankifying it a bit by dropping the ‘p,’ but the French pronounciation is actually closer to ‘bow koo.’ And that depends more on the DILECT of French you are speaking (or hearing). Plus, it depends on the dialect of whatever language YOU speak that will depend on how you HEAR it. To wit: (or should that be too It?) In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, near the tri-border area with Cambodia (now Kampuchea because of dialect correction) and Laos there is a mixed population (or was, in 1968, anyway) consisting of Cambodians, Laotions, Vietnamese and Montagnyards. Because of the French occupation of that area for time out of mind the languages were somewhat mixed, and dialects were colored by the origin of the speaker. A favorite phrase in those days was “You beaucoup din ka dau.”\* This was a mix of the French ‘beaucoup’ meaning very, or extremely, and the Vietnamese ‘din ka dau’\* meaning ‘crazy,’ literal translation meant something about ‘the head’ being messed up, and the English ‘you’ meaning… well, you get my drift… - Inflection and spelling of Vietnamese words not guaranteed, I lost my dictionary in Polei-kleng. Now, the Vietnamese said (pseudo phonetic): “U boo koo dinka dau” American soldiers from the NorthEast said: “Yew beau coo dinky dau” and American soldiers from the South said “Yiew boo koo dinky dow” So what way is the right way? Only a linguist could get it all “right.” signed, Suh Nayk ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/38 "2004-04-30T01:10:09Z")
> [@Snakespirit](#): > > In English we would say it so it sounds ‘bow koo,’ Frankifying it a bit by dropping the ‘p,’ but the French pronounciation is actually closer to ‘bow koo.’ OOps, he meant the French is closer to ‘boo coo’ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/39 "2004-04-30T01:47:07Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > Thinking about the _beaucoup_ business - I wonder if people are getting it mixed up with _beau_ pronounced as in _beau and arrow_. > > In France _beaucoup_ is pronounced sort of like book-oo - with a slightly shorter first syllable… > > Quoi qu’il en soit, they talk much French in Alaska ? Malheurusement, seulement dans chez moi! Cretins! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516/40 "2004-04-30T01:50:02Z")
I would like to say something: Whilst! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-up-there-is-no-such-word-as-walaa/242516.md?page=3)