Hi everyone, welcome to this bonus episode of the History of English Podcast.

This is bonus episode number four, let me buoy your spirits.

Or perhaps I should say, let me buoy your spirits.

In fact, that's really the main subject of this bonus episode, the pronunciation of the

word B-U-O-Y in modern English.

Now a couple of episodes back, in episode 31, I concluded the episode by discussing some

words that passed from the Franks into modern English.

And one of the words I mentioned was that word B-U-O-Y, which I pronounced buoy.

And that is the most common pronunciation of the word in the United States.

However, that pronunciation elicited a great deal of discussion in the comment section

of the episode on the website.

In Britain, the pronunciation is buoy.

And it's my understanding that that's also the pronunciation in Australia.

And it also appears that Canada tends to use buoy as well, but buoy also makes an appearance

in certain areas, perhaps due to U.S. influence.

Now, as I noted, the pronunciation in the U.S. is generally buoy, but in some parts of

the country, buoy is also used.

And in fact, the British pronunciation of buoy has made its way into American English

in some very specific ways.

The soap brand, Lifeboy, originated in England and came to the U.S. with its original pronunciation.

And in the U.S., it was called Lifeboy, even though it was spelled B-U-O-Y, and clearly

referred to the maritime object, not a small child.

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