How in the heck did Toyota decide that Prius should be pronounced, ‘Pr ee us’? I just sounds so pretentious. I much prefer the British ‘Pr eye us’. Are there any more instances of “i” being pronounced as a long “ee” in English?
OK, after considerable thougth I came up with one word.
It is exactly how I would pronounce that word if the car didn’t exist. That -us ending shifts me towards more Latin pronunciation. And I before U is generally pronounced as either ee or Y, depending on which vowel is stressed.
Do you have examples of words where iu is pronounced with the vowel in “eye”?
That said, I suspect Toyota’s pronunciation probably just came from them being Japanese, and then adopting how Americans tried to say it back to them.
It’s common in English for an “i” to be pronounced as a long “e” when it’s followed by a vowel. Examples include “studio,” “audio,” and “lenient.”
There are plenty of other English words where “i” is pronounced that way: “regime,” “vaccine,” “taxi,” “Miami,” “MIssissippi,” “chic.”
marine
ballerina
cardiac
accordion
radiate
aerial
thespian
fiancee
agrarian
Aquarius
atrium
barium
unique
cafeteria
cambrian
chromium
columbian
helium
medium
median
benzine
angrier
jovial
Yeah, by analogy: Celsius, Sirius, Claudius, radius. If I saw “Prius” in the wild with no previous exposure to the word, “Pree-us” would be my first guess.
Many word that end in:
-ine
-iest
-ier
-ious
-ium
It’s so common you probably say words like that so often you don’t even notice. Almost like it’s routine.
Prion.
Then think even more considerably. When ‘i’ is followed by ‘u’ in English it is pretty much invariably pronounced with a long ‘ee’ sound - sodium, calcium, medium. Can you think of any counter-examples?
Do all Brits really pronounce it Pry-Us? Or is just those three idiots being…well, idiots?
How do you pronounce “Aquarius”?
OK, fun fact. As a word, prius wasn’t a wholly original coinage by the Toyota Motor Corporation. It’s a Latin word meaning “before” (adjective) or “previously” (adverb).
Related fun fact: in common law countries, it turns up in an old-fashioned bit of legal jargon — nisi prius (unless previously). Where a case was within the jurisdiction both of local courts and of the central courts in London, it might be listed for trial in London nisi prius meaning, it will be tried in London on a certain date unless the parties have previously had it tried in a local court. If a case was listed nisi prius, certain procedures would have to ensue — when it came on for hearing in London, th parties would have to aver that it hadn’t been dealt with in the local court and, when it was dealt with in London, a record had to be made to prevent it being re-litigated in the local court.
With reform of court organisation and procedures the term has had no contemporary relevance since, I think, about 1971, so it’s now obsolete. But older lawyers will still be vaguely aware of it, and it turns up in novels, plays, etc about, or situated in, the pre-1970s era, if they deal with legal topics. So there’s still some residual familarity with the phrase.
And, third fun fact: the pronunciation of Latin words in England has varied over time. In the nineteenth century it was common to apply English pronunciation conventions to Latin words. So, the title of Newton’s Principia Mathematica, for instance, would be pronounced “prin-sip-eye-ah math-eh-mat-ick-ah” (rather than “Prin-kip-ee-ah Math-eh-mat-ee-kah”, which is what a Latinist today would say).
Which means, of cousre, that nisi prius was routinely pronounced “nye-sye pry-us”. Lawyers, being a conservative bunch, retained the old-fashioned Latin pronunciation for legal jargon long after it has been dropped in other contexts. (They still say “prymah faysee” for prima facie, for example.) So anyone in England who is familiar with the phrase nisi prius is familiar with it as “nye-sye pry-us”.
And this may colour their pronunciation of the Toyota Prius.
Looks like both pronunciations are in common use. I have always used Pry-us, probably because of the similarity with Priority.
Yeah, British English often has more than one pronunciation in circulation for uncommon or recently-imported words, and for stuff that has been in the language longer, the version that is settled upon is often not the same as the origin, because there are no hard and fast rules for pronunciation in English.
Well, if there is a rule, it’s something like:
This is why words like ‘Jalapeño’, ‘chorizo’, ‘chipotle’ and ‘adobe’ tend to be mangled in British English:
Look at the word: Adobe
Try to think of things you know that are similar: Advert, Admin. Lobe, Probe, Globe, Wardrobe.
Pronounce it like that: ædˈəʊb
It wouldn’t occur to me to pronounce it pryus, and I can’t recall hearing anyone else of my acquaintance saying it thus either.
Pr-ee-ous for me and everyone else I have heard say it (not really that many).
Here’s a Prius commercial for the UK (or at least Scotland, I guess) in which Toyota pronounces it as “pree-us” (at 1:45). However, that ad is from many years ago. Has Toyota relented and started pronouncing it as “pry-us” in more recent UK ads?
Nike has a similarly odd pronunciation history. The company founders (and pretty much everybody in the US) hew to the original Greek pronunciation, i.e. Nike rhymes with “spikey”. But folks in the UK rhyme it with bike.
OK – I think I know all the mangled pronunciations, but the one for “chorizo” is not obvious to me. Is it that the “z” gets pronounced as in German or Italian with a “ts” sound or something? Oh, wait, or is it “Choh-rizzo”? That must be it, right?
Chu ritz oh
If you know the Spanish pronunciation, it hurts to hear it
I’m on board with Pr ee us. For a counter example, consider Tidus, the main character in Final Fantasy X. Tee dus just sounds strange to me, even thought that is the official way the name is supposed to be pronounced. In my head I go with Tide us.
ETA: In other words, I think it can to either way, depending on what sounds cooler to me.
Yeah, I’m in the US, specifically Chicago, where there is the Mexican version of chorizo at every grocery store and probably at least half the diners. We say something akin to “cho-ree-so,” though some/many may voice that last “s” into a “z.”