Aug 28
Should it be “a ukulele” or “an ukulele”?
That’s a vexed question.
Linguistically speaking, if a noun starts with a vowel sound it’s ‘an’ and for a consonant sound it’s ‘a’.
But there is plenty of disagreement on whether the word ‘ukulele’ starts with a vowel sound or not. The Hawaiian way of pronouncing it is ‘oo-koo-lay-lay’ i.e. with a vowel sound. The most common way to pronounce it in the mainland US, and the rest of the English speaking, world is ‘yoo-ka-lay-lee’.
Hardcore ukulele traditionalists (aka pedants) will tell you that the Hawaiian pronunciation is the only true and correct pronunciation and therefore only ‘an ukulele’ is correct. However, unless you live in Hawaii, your English teacher is unlikely to be familiar with the derivation of the word ukulele and will strike a big red line through ‘an ukulele’. But it would certainly be fun proving them wrong. Unless you’re trying to embarrass your English teacher, stick to ‘a ukulele’.
There is one issue that is completely clear cut: anyone who says ‘ook’ rather than ‘uke’ is clinically insane and should be dragged to the nearest brain-doctor.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
The word ukulele is a Hawaiian word. You can get BA, MA and a PhD from the University of Hawaii in Hawaiian Language and Culture.. So, yes there is only one corect way to pronouce ukulele.