In TV reports yesterday on the exotic animals on the loose around Zanesville, I noticed that the LEO in charge of dealing with the matter said that the wandering animals included one “woof” (or perhaps more like “wuff”). First of all, I didn’t know it was pronounced that way in any regional dialect. The second thought I had on the matter was to wonder how are plurals pronounced? Since there was only one wolf we didn’t get to hear him say it.
Would he have said “wuffs” or “wuvs”? Or “wolves”?
This concept of ‘wuvs’ confuses and infuriates us!
Woof, woof, woof! At least that is how it is said at UNM games.
I have heard plenty of people use ‘wuvs’ but no one say ‘wuffs’ so I assume it is the former.
Wolves?
Bob
I was posta axe this question about wuffs, but supposibly no one says it like that. Psshht.
What I would consider the more common pronunciation:
[wʊlf] / [wʊvz]
What I think you heard, and how I’ve heard people with that accent pluralize it:
[wʌv] / [wʌvz]
(Disclaimer: I’ve only had one semester of IPA study for musicians).
Previous thread (not specifically dealing with plural).
I say “woof” and I grew up in Ohio. Multiple "woof"s are “woolves”.
I’m also one of those odd-balls who adds an ‘r’ to “wash”.
Originally from Indiana, and I say ‘woof’ if I’m not careful. Plural would be somewhere between wooves and wolves.
Wasnt this a David Letterman bit from years ago? I recall him saying ‘woof’ over and over, maybe making fun of a guest?
My dog just says “woof” as many times as he thinks is necessary.
I remember a Wolf Blitzer interview, during which the interviewee called him “Woof.” To his credit, Blitzer kept a straight face. Guess he’s used to it.
I’m from pretty close to there, and I barely pronounce the L, if at all. I’ve thought about it now too much to the point that I don’t know quite what I say, but I’m pretty sure I pronounce the L more in “wolves” than in “wolf.” I think.
No matter how the pronounce the word, I have always heard the plural with a /v/ rather than an /f/, except amongst those would actually spell it wolfs (or even woofs) instead of wolves.
What, should I have said “DiMaggio”?
Englishman here. It’s wolf for me, though I do say fawcon for falcon I’m in a minority there, it used to be the standard pronunciation in the UK but over the last half century the speak as you spell tendency has won out, as with many other words.
By the way I heard Kathy Bates in last night’s episode of Harry’s Law pronounce tumult as tumm-ult (first syllable as in tummy) rather than tyoo-mult, standard in the UK. Is that really how Americans generally pronounce it or is this a quirk of hers?
That’s the way we do it around here.
Rhymes with “roof” in that dialect, if I’m not mistaken.
And “squash,” too, I’ll bet.
I laughed.
Correct. And besides wash becoming warsh, creek comes out as crick.