The New Sudoku Players' Forum

by **9X9** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:21 am

Apologies if this has been discussed previously.

In my English mind and when speaking, I have hitherto always pronounced Su Doku as soo do (as in dough) koo. However, a well-known and very erudite lady expert from the Oxford English Dictionary pronounced it as soo dockoo on TV this morning when talking about "new words on the block".

I have never previously known her to be wrong, so I am now interested to learn how other players pronounce the name?

by **PaulIQ164** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:09 pm

I pronounce it "soo-doh-koo", but I've heard it pronouced "su-dock-oo" a lot, particularly on TV. I'm not sure there is a "correct" pronuncation?

So anyway, who was this expert? Was it Susie Dent off of Countdown?

by **jf27** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:18 pm

I think the "o" in "doku" is short. My Japanese grammar (alas not read) says that "o" is similar to the vowel in English "cot", but with lips slightly more rounded. So the OED lady seems to be right (they almost always are). But let Japanese experts take the floor.

by **Shazbot** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:36 pm

A Japanese lady once explained to me the easiest way to remember the pronunciation of the vowels. a, i, u, e, o are sounded as in the phrase, "Ah, we soon get old", in that order - so the o would be almost the same as in cot, as indicated above.

by **PaulIQ164** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:52 pm

Gyles Brandreth called it "Sukudo" on Room 101 last night, which I think we can all agree is wrong.

by **udosuk** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:58 pm

"Soo-doc-koo" is probably the correct pronounciation, although I prefer to pronounce the ending "koo" with the slightest length, i.e. "soo-dock" would sound quite nice. That's just from my knowledge of Japanese and their preference to add an "u" to most ending consonants of English words... e.g. "kissu" instead of "kiss". (So if we break it up into 2 words "su doku" (the original way) then it could be pronounced as "s-dock" just like "stock" then?)

I thought if we want to play with this word, anagrams would be more interesting. Can't believe only dukuso and I are the only ones to use them as IDs here. Another anagram to use could be "kudosu" (i.e. kudos)?

by **9X9** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:57 pm

Paul - 'Twas indeed the knee-tremblingly lovely Susie. If only I were younger and available!!!

All - "soo-doc-koo" it shall be for me from now on then, unless of course Wayne knows better?

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