Oven or Oven?

[rob]

Muff over here as well.

[Mr Q]

Uh-ven. I've never heard anyone say Oh-ven - but then we do have our own bizarre (and often grating, at least to my ears) pronunciations over here too.

[rts]

Muff

[Alexia]

Cooker.

[Gavin Scott]

Someone said oh-ven on Big Brother last night. I might add that's the only few seconds I watched of it.

A girl I worked with called it an oh-ven. When I questioned her about she said, "you don't say uh-veries, its oh-veries and oh-ven".

I was left knowing not what to say to that.

So I wondered what the proportion is who say this variance.

[Nick Harvey]

Must confess that my mind went wandering off in the direction of Oban when I first saw the thread.

Especially given that the question was coming from a Scots Scott (okay with a bit of double-Dutch mingled in there somewhere).

I wonder how they pronounce oven in Oban, but more importantly, what logic do they use to justify their choice?

I feel an edition of Comment coming on!

[marksi]

It's more like the "of" as in "I'd like a bar of chocolate". Rounder than "uv", but not an "o" sound either.

[Gavin Scott]

It's more like the "of" as in "I'd like a bar of chocolate". Rounder than "uv", but not an "o" sound either.

A close-mid central rounded vowel?

Why didn't you say so?



Oh and Nick, I would be chuffed to bits to think I had inspired a topic for comment. I'm already tickled by the idea that a BBC announcer has checked with the pronunciation unit

[timgraham]

Uh-ven. I've never heard anyone say Oh-ven - but then we do have our own bizarre (and often grating, at least to my ears) pronunciations over here too.

That doesn't make it right!

Remember that brits also have a habit of saying "yoghurt" to rhyme the first bit with jog, and pasta to rhyme with mass. Which is clearly just wrong (Ben O'Donoghue made a point of this if anyone ever watched that marvelous cooking show The Best).

[Dr Lobster*]

"uvan" here in norfolk

[Cache]

And "Uven" in Yorkshire too.