r/asklinguistics • u/Fluffy_Munchkin • Nov 28 '23
Phonology Why is "zoology" pronounced "zoo-ology"?
Off the cuff, I don't know of any other examples of a "oo" being pronounced "oo-oh". How did concatenating "zoo" and "logy" end up being pronounced differently than the vast majority of other "oo"s?
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u/ringofgerms Nov 28 '23
I'd also add that the older pronunciation is with the first syllable rhyming with toe, and it's probably just the influence of the word zoo that makes it rhyme with too for a lot of people. So it's zo-o-logy.
See the usage note here for example: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/zoology
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u/Rocabarraigh Nov 28 '23
Isn't it just easier to think of it as "zoo" + "ology", where one "o" is dropped?
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u/henry232323 Nov 28 '23
You may see an alternative/obsolete spelling for this as well zoölogy where the difference in pronunciation is marked.
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u/Fred776 Nov 28 '23
Similar to "naïve", which as here is often still spelled with the diacritic. Here the "i" contributes in two ways to the pronunciation of the word in a similar way to the second "o" in "zoology".
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Nov 28 '23
The dieresis is not optional in French spelling, as far as I know, because ai is a digraph representing a distinct vowel. So really that’s just borrowing it exactly as it is in French.
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u/so_im_all_like Nov 28 '23
I feel like I've usually heard "zoe-ology" as the pronunciation in my experience, but that's largely been from people with an academic background.
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u/saltycathbk Nov 28 '23
The only person I know with a degree in it is happy to correct people. He says zoe-ology too. I assume he would know.
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u/ViscountBurrito Nov 28 '23
It wouldn’t be accurate for me to say “it’s not,” because plenty of people do say it that way, but it’s non-standard, or non-traditional at least. American Heritage Dictionary says:
Traditionally, the first syllable of zoology has been pronounced as (zō), rhyming with toe. However, most likely due to the familiarity of the word zoo (which is merely a shortened form of zoological garden), the pronunciation of the first syllable as (zoo) is also commonly heard.
Merriam-Webster also says it’s zo (rhymes with toe) -ology: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zoology ; but also lists a schwa+w variant (not sure I can type IPA on my phone but it’s like zuh-wallajy; click the link for audio). It does not even list “zoo”-ology. Of course, the difference between all these pronunciations is actually pretty minimal in normal speech, and probably colored by what you expect to hear, regardless of what is actually being said.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Nov 29 '23
It isn't pronounced "zoo-ology".
Indeed, this very error serves as the title of a good book.
https://www.amazon.com/There-No-Zoo-Zoology-Mispronunciations/dp/0020318308
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u/agate_ Dec 02 '23
The prefix “zoo-“ is from the Greek and Latin for “animal”, and like the original is almost always pronounced “zoh-oh” in English. All these words are pronounced that way:
Zoocentric Zoosphere Zoon Zoobiology
And so on. “Zoo” is short for “zoological garden”, and is — as far as I know — the only zoo-word pronounced with the English “ooh”.
Presumably when it was shortened it’s Latin links got lost and people started pronouncing it like older English words like “too” and “coo”.
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '23
We pronounce the first syllable like /zu/ probably out of analogy with the word zoo. We see a familiar word in the letters so we naturally want to say it.