Just curious. It's probably not a word you say out loud too often, but how would you pronounce "WAFF"?

To answer this question (and satisfy my curiousity):

Step 1: Click here to hear a short sound file with two possible pronounciations.

EDIT (For a little extra clarity):
Option One rhymes with "daffy" and "taffy."
Option Two is like the first half of "waffle."

Step 2:Think about which one is closer to the way you'd say it.

Step 3: Vote in the poll below.

Thanks.

Paul

I think I may actually be somewhere in between, but will lean more towards the second option, meself. =D

Like saying waffles.

The sound is off on my computer since it's so late, but I say it like waffles. :p And I totally say it! If I'm reading a fic, I'll speak out loud sometimes when I'm thinking through my FDK.

Jen

I voted other because... well, neither of the options are close to how I say it.

I say it more way-fee. Am I the oddball out here?

Sara

Heh. Thanks for the audio sample, Paul. I'm one of the two who've gone for the first option so far. Funny, I never thought there were alternate (and apparently more popular!) pronunciations of the term.

I think, I tend to the second version.
Might be cause I in german, the "a" is always pronounced like in "waffle".
That's also the way I say "LAFF".

But tell me, Paul - whose voice had *that* been?
It made me shiver

Bye,

Jana

Incognito: I was as surprised as you were to discover that there was an "alternate" pronounciation, and I've been surprised by the vote so far, too.

Jana: Whose voice? Take a guess.

As for LAFF, I never considered pronouncing that in any way other than I'd say "laugh" (which also rhymes with option one).

Hmm. Now I'm wondering if I need to set up another poll... Waft vs waft .

(There are two red "speaker" icons on that page...)

Paul

Well, my speakers are disconnected, but I'd say I pronounce it closer to the second version (but not exactly) the way you wrote it.

Very interesting. I'd like to see a poll for the pronunciation of Lana Lang....

I voted option two, I too like to say waffles... mmmm, waffles.

Ahem, anyway....

Nancy you are too funny. But it's a good thought. Is it Lana like banana? Or Lana with an awwww sound? - as in Lana like your lawn - a.

Hee hee.

In the story I just finished - whenever I said her name out loud as I wrote - it was Lana like lawn - a. But I've heard it Lana like banana before too. Hmmm...

Whoa, I thought so but didn't want to gush about that incredible voice when you might tell me afterwards it came from a PC or something

See, it works the same for me - and my "laugh" has indeed the sound as in "waffle".

It might be interesting (yeah, I'm from the "Unimportant-but-interesting-Trivia front which I got recently to know in a fic by Annie M ), whether there's a correlation between the way to pronounce these words and the origin of a person.
Cause in school we were strictly taught to pronounce "dance" and "can't" and so on with this "waffle"-a. (though not much of this Oxford English has survived in me )

Bye,

Jana

I don't think I've ever actually said WAFF. I keep snakes, so to me "warm and fuzzy" tends to be something I've just thawed out for their dinner...

I pronounce it like the second option, probably because I'm Dutch The first option sounds really weird to me because I've always thought of it like in waffle (yes, I do think about words.. :rolleyes: )

Count me in as another who didn't realize there was any other option than that WAFF rhymes with laugh. Not that I ever said it out loud, to my knowledge, but that's the way I say it in my mind.

On the other hand, after hearing the sound file (btw, I agree with Jana - nice voice, Paul) - I have to admit that the word WAFFY pronounced to rhyme with taffy sounds like it wacky and brings to mind a corn-ball comedy, where as WAFFY pronounced to rhyme with waffle -le +y, sounds sort of warm and fuzzy! Hmmm, I may have to change the way I pronounce the word.

It never even occured to me to pronouced it the option two way. I always did option one.

I say it like the first option...

When I don't know how to say words (and I can't find sound bites for them on the internet!), I pronounce them as if they were French. When I was in Nashville last year, visiting friends I made on another website, they kept cracking up because I always mis-pronounced their nicks - they all sounded French and funny to them. (like "dido", which I say "deedo" since "i" is "ee" in French... eh... never occured to me that I was wrong. LOL)

LOL, Paul! I agree with the others - very nice voice, and I think you should consider a career in radio.

For the record, I rhyme WAFF with laugh - and that's a northern, short 'a', not a southern, drawn-out 'a'. For further clarification, northerners pronounce their a's like...um...possibly Sean Connery, whereas southerns pronounce their a's like the royal family.

Yvonne

I pronounce it as option number too as well, but it has nothing to do with the fact I'm Dutch. I know this is a word that can be pronounced in several ways and this just sounds better to me, more English in a way.

And nice voice, Paul!

Saskia

You English-speakers and your one thousand different ways of pronouncing 'a'...

It took me at least two listenings to figure out exactly what was different between the two options. I could hear they were slightly different, now that they were given as examples and I was *waiting* for the difference, but if I had heard the two options spoken by two different people in an everyday conversation, I probably wouldn't have noticed. But I guess having grown up learning Greek, where there's only one, very clear way of pronouncing 'a', I haven't been trained to tell apart easily these subtle differences.

Or maybe you guys are just very nitpicky

As for how I pronounce it... I'm confused. I thought I said the first - well, in my head, I thought the first, with a very clear, very Greek 'a'. (Think Spanish 'a'.) But when I tried to *say* it, it came out more like the second option - or, well, less like the first option; not so clearly 'a'. (Haven't voted yet.)

And Paul - you sound nothing like I thought you would. I never imagined you had such a deep voice. (It's great, though Charming, even, if you'll allow me.)

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Well, let's see DJ, my best friend's name is Lana like banana. But on Smallville Lana is pronounced Lawna.


Interesting note, Schnuffichen - You are unlikely to hear Americans saying dance and can't with a waffle a. That would make it sound very British to me.


Okay, now wait a minute, Vicki:

So, you are saying you pronounce WAFF like laugh but laugh doesn't rhyme with taff as in taffy? If I were to say laugh-y it would rhyme with taffy. So how do you say laugh? Do you say laugh as in the lof part of loft? I voted, but I didn't listen to Paul. So what accent do you speak with Paul? Now it makes me wonder how some of you say waffle. I might have to hook up my speakers....

I thought I liked what Anna said about the Spanish 'a', which is how I would say it, but she didn't describe a Spanish 'a' the way I say a Spanish 'a' and I thought it was always the same. Anna described saying a Spanish 'a' the first way Paul described which is taffy, but I say waffle the same way I say a Spanish 'a'.


So now do any of us actually know how we think the other folks here pronounce WAFF? I don't think those little marks that tell us how to pronounce the different types of 'a' sounds would help since we all seem to be saying it different anyway. What a hoot....

PS, I finally listened to the sound clip today, Paul. You totally belong in radio. :p

Jen

Well, Classicalla - the fact that he is speaking an *English* word accounts for the vowel not sounding as Spanish, I think Especially when he says 'That scene was so WAFFy' - I can spot a bit of 'e' sound creeping in. However, I think it's close enough to allow me to use the term "Spanish 'a'" to separate it from the other one, which has evidently hints of 'o' in it.

See ya,
AnnaBtG. (who can pronounce Spanish impeccably, but speaks English with a combination of all accents known to man).

Definitely option 2!

Tricia

Paul! That was YOUR voice? Nice...

I agree, you should be in radio.

After listening to you say the two, I DEFINITELY think #2.

# 2 for me; it never occured to me to say it any other way. Although I don't usually say it out loud, more just in my head, but that's how it sounds in my head. (I am babbling, aren't I?)

In my head, Lana sounds like LANE-A, as opposed to LAN-A or LA-NA. In "Tempus, Anyone?" I think it was pronounced LAN-A, but as was previously stated, in Smallville it is LA-NA. No telling how the person who originally created the character thought of it.

Oh, and to weigh in on the voice, I'll just come right out and say it: sexy, Paul!

Yup.

I've never pronounced Lana any way but to rhyme with tan. Mostly because that's the way Lana Turner always pronounced it, and that was good enough for me. And, btw, I know Lana Turner from re-runs of her movies, okay? Just making that clear.

I've never heard anyone pronounce it another way, but then I don't watch Smallville. Is this just another attempt to be pretentious in the modern age? Make a traditional name seem exotic? Which seems to have been a fad in the last decade or so. Or are there other examples of Lawna around, besides Smallville?

LabRat

I couldn't imagine there was more than one way to say "waff", and to me that is the first alternative. I'll keep pronouncing it so that it rhymes with "daffy" and "taffy".

But now at least I'll know what the rest of you are talking about if I hear you say that option #2 thing!

Ann

Anna, I haven't actually heard the files. What I meant by a Spanish 'a' is that it is only supposed to be pronounced one way (at least that's the way I was taught). I was going strictly on the way they were described which obviously different people are saying the same word differently. From the way, he has it described I would get absolutely no Spanish 'e' from either of them. All accents, huh? How about a nice Scarlett O'hara?

And Mrs. Mosley, I have never heard Lana pronounced like Lois Lane's last name. I'll have to ask my best friend who I'm sure has heard every pronunciation know to man. Interesting, eh?

Yes, that is actually my voice. It never really seemed like anything special, but I'm glad you guys appreciate it.

(I do miss my childhood voice. Especially the ability to sing in the soprano range. Now I start straining if I try to go above tenor. Nothing you can do about that, though.)

Classica, about Vicki's post:

My understanding is that she had never considered anything other than Option One before, but that, hearing them aloud, she was beginning to think she liked Option Two better, after all. So, she did pronounce it like "laugh" and "taffy," but now she thinks she might change that. Make sense?

As for my accent, it's a fairly generic american one. According to a linguist friend, I'm reasonably close to what's considered "US Standard." It's not excatly unaccented (since, really, there is no such thing), but it's not particularly representative of any area (other than, perhaps, the central region of the east coast).

As for Lana... I don't actually have a preference.

I usually pronounce the "La" as in the musical note, so that it rhymes with "na." "La-na."

There's another version, though, where the first A is pronounced as in "apple." "Laa-na." (I guess, yeah, that would rhyme with "tan-a.") I've heard that often enough that I don't mind (or even really notice) it.

I'm not sure what you guys mean by "Lawna." I can only imagine hearing that from a Boston native...

Anyway, thanks for the responses and votes so far. The thread has been intresting, and it's nice to see Option One making at least something of a comeback in the polls.

Paul

I'd say WAFF as in "waffles." It's just the way I've always said it. I was actually suprised to find that there were people who pronounced it differently.

It's interesting about LAFF, though. I do say it to rhyme with "laugh," but the thing is, the way I pronounce "laugh" isn't how most Americans would. I say it the British way -- with a long Aah sound. (Sorry, too lazy to hunt down phonetics

I'm with you, Sara. I pronounce it way-fee!

Julie

This made me realise that I probably pronounce "waffles" the wrong way

Well . . .

In Smallville and Superman II, it's "La-na," while Clark in L&C says Lana like "banana" sometimes and either he or other characters say "La-na" other times (going by "Tempus Anyone?" here). I think it's all just a matter of "I say po-tay-toe, you say po-tah-toe."

Me? I've always preferred "La-na" myself--Lana like "banana" always sounded really nasal and annoying to me.

As it's just one step away from my name, I pronounce Lana the way I do pronounce mine

So, it's La-Na with two waffle-a

Bye,

Ja-Na
(whose name is always pronounced banana-like by all Americans )

How do people pronounce NFic? I have always said NicFic. When I went to LAFF I said that to someone and they had no idea what I was talking about.

I say it as "N. Fic" or possibly "N-Fic" No extra "ic" required. Not like there's an "ic" in any of the possible things that the N stands for...

Paul

I also say it as n. fic.

jd

Option 1. Until I stumbled across the poll, it never crossed my mind that there could be any kind of alternative.

Incidentally, for me Option 1 does not rhyme with 'laugh' -- or, exaggerating a little here, perhaps I should say 'larf', as in 'You're 'aving a larf, ain't ya?'.

LAFF doesn't rhyme with 'laugh', either. LAFF rhymes with WAFF.

Just so you know, I don't have a northern twang when I speak English, no matter than I haven't lived in the south of England for... wow. Quite a long time.

Paul, you have a beautiful voice. I'll listen to any audio fics you read!

Chris

NicFic? Where did the first "ic" come from? In my mind I pronounce it "N <brief pause> Fic". Chris, I promise I didn't think you were a Geordie.

With my accent it all sounds the same.