How to pronounce Mook

[Zocelot]

Last session, my group got into an argument over how to pronounce the word "Mook". The two ideas were rhyming with book, and the sound a cow makes with a k on the end. I checked Answers.com, but there was no information of pronunciation. What is the correct way to pronounce mook?

[kamikasei]

The latter, like kook, or spook.

[Collin152]

Mook: Moo-ck

[kpenguin]

Dictionary.com's entry on "mook" (I didn't bother looking at a reputable dictionary, since the word is so slangy) has the IPA pronunciation as /muk/.

The "m" sounding like in make, summer, or time
The "u" sounding like in ooze, food, soup, or sue
The "k" sounding like in can, speaker, or stick

EDIT: Double ninja'd!

[TempusCCK]

I find the term particularly hilarious because in the vernacular of most of the world around me, the term has come to mean a particularly lazy or good for nothing person.

"What are you doing?"

"Mookin' "

"Wanna go get coffee?"

[Eldariel]

Easiest way: It's the same as a cow's "moo", except with a "k" in the end.

[Curmudgeon]

What those guys said, you mook.

[Lert, A.]

Oh, the memories of learning the English language.

The horrid, horrid memories.

[Fax Celestis]

Oh, the memories of learning the English language.

The horrid, horrid memories.

Some of us grew up on the damn thing.

[Collin152]

Some of us grew up on the damn thing.

And never looked back!
ぜんぜん！

[Lert, A.]

Some of us grew up on the damn thing.

You have my condolences.

[Orzel]

I learned how to say the word from Irving the Penguin. What a Mook!

[Ravens_cry]

Some of us grew up on the damn thing.

Congratulations!
I love the English language, it's such a ragbag of assortments from the world over, often subtly twisting the meanings of words that from one culture mean the general, to the specific from that culture. Take kimono, the original Japanese word simply meant robe, any robe. In English it means Japanese robe.
Not to mention all it's self contradictory rules, such as 'i' before 'e', except after 'c', except when it's not.Weird, huh? English is always in flux, with neologisms appearing all the time. Some leave, some stay. It is a rowdy language. And what was once the language of former invaders who lived on the southern part of an island off the coast of Europe, has become the language of trade and commerce the world over.
I love it!
I always pronounced mook like 'moon' with a 'k' instead of an 'n'.

[Shpadoinkle]

Mook rhymes with duke.

[Leliel]

It's pronounced "CAN-non FOD-ur".

Wah-wah-wah.

EDIT: Why I misspelled the pronunciation, no one can know.

[TempusCCK]

I'm generally pro English, we managed to have the most confounding system, but it's also the most adaptive. English manages to make more words, with less symbols, than any other language in the world, all in all, one of the most difficult to learn, but the most efficient over all.

Decrying the effiency of English because of the difficulty in learning it is similar to saying computers suck because math is hard.

[Alleine]

Some of us grew up on the damn thing.

Still can't get the stains out

[Eldariel]

I'm generally pro English, we managed to have the most confounding system, but it's also the most adaptive. English manages to make more words, with less symbols, than any other language in the world, all in all, one of the most difficult to learn, but the most efficient over all.

Decrying the effiency of English because of the difficulty in learning it is similar to saying computers suck because math is hard.

I don't know, most of the words in English are completely superfluous and you'd get by with about a 10th of the presently existent documented vocabulary just fine; just looking at an English Thesaurus makes me cringe. The primary issue I've got with the language though is the irregularity; no other language I've got even a passing understanding of breaks quite as many of its own rules in syntax or phonology, and no other language I'm aware of has quite as heavy differences between the phonemes and their symbols. Learning conversational English is very easy but it takes a lifetime or more (at least for foreigners) to learn all the nuances and exceptions.

[TempusCCK]

The nuances and exceptions don't really play that big of a part though, at least, not as much as some people think.

I do agree that in average conversation you can get by with a 10th of what is available, but there is something to be said for growth of language capacity. Not to mention, many words could have similar meanings, but have different nuances.

For instance, we both used the term "nuances" when we could have easily said "differences and similarities" or "variations." "Nuances", however, has a specific connotation that makes it particularly useful for what we were trying to say, which makes English a more adaptive language.

[Ravens_cry]

I don't know, most of the words in English are completely superfluous and you'd get by with about a 10th of the presently existent documented vocabulary just fine; just looking at an English Thesaurus makes me cringe. The primary issue I've got with the language though is the irregularity; no other language I've got even a passing understanding of breaks quite as many of its own rules in syntax or phonology, and no other language I'm aware of has quite as heavy differences between the phonemes and their symbols. Learning conversational English is very easy but it takes a lifetime or more (at least for foreigners) to learn all the nuances and exceptions.

'Get by'? Sure. That is the idea behind Basic English, which has a grand total of 2000 words.
But it is the variety, the sheer exuberant prolificness that I love so.
Would you want to call a woman just 'pretty', or beautiful, attractive, beauteous, beautifully, beauty, better-looking, bonnie, bonny, comely, dishy , exquisite, fair, fine-looking, glorious, good-looking, gorgeous, graceful, handsome, lovely, picturesque, pleasant, pleasing, , pretty-pretty, pulchritudinous, ravishing, resplendent, scenic, sightly, splendid, splendiferous, stunning, and well-favoured?
It's the difference between a rose bush and garden. Between meat and vegetables, and a bountiful banquet. Yes, it is difficult. I have been learning English all my life, and I am still learning new words, and new ways to use them. And I am a native speaker. But that is it's joy, it's freedom.

[Lert, A.]

Oh, what did I do?

I actually like English, but it being a second (well, fourth) language, it was terrible to learn. Once you get it, okay. Until then, weep.

[Epinephrine]

Oh, what did I do?

I actually like English, but it being a second (well, fourth) language, it was terrible to learn. Once you get it, okay. Until then, weep.

Agree, terrible to learn... though on the plus side, conjugation is easy.

Spoiler

Show

This is a poem I was sent ages ago; it is great fun, as it shows the bizarre pronunciations that abound in english. I figure you'd probably like it - I don't know anyone who has gotten it right all the way through (at least the first time :)

+-------------------------------------------+
ENGLISH IS TOUGH STUFF
+-------------------------------------------+

(Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters near Paris found English to be an easy language ... until they tried to pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, the verses below were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months at hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself.)

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sleeve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

[Pie Guy]

Lots of people learn english, it aren't that hard.

[LibraryOgre]

Mook rhymes with Duke. I'd be confused if someone tried to pronounce it another way.

However, I tend to refer to English as being like a family's crazy uncle. You can't imagine life without it... it's just part of how your life is... but every so often you have to look at it and say "What is wrong with you?"

[lisiecki]

the word is of a langage designed by cows and orangutans
MOOOOO Ookkk oook ookk

Also rhymes with racial epitaph for Asian person's...

[The Glyphstone]

the word is of a langage designed by cows and orangutans
MOOOOO Ookkk oook ookk

Also rhymes with racial epitaph for Asian person's...

You mean epithet?



the irony of this is staggering considering the nature of the ongoing discussion...

[lisiecki]

You mean epithet?



the irony of this is staggering considering the nature of the ongoing discussion...

possibly
I have, repeatedly , and often, stated in this forum, that i am not a very smart individual

I'm a moron, lets move on

[lisiecki]

You mean epithet?



the irony of this is staggering considering the nature of the ongoing discussion...

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...&postcount=393

[The Glyphstone]

Can't blame you, the two words are very similar. It just struck me as funny considering this thread is all about how weird the english language is.



Now I want to try and figure out what a racial epitaph would be, aside from a normal epitaph written in someone's native language...

[lisiecki]

Can't blame you, the two words are very similar. It just struck me as funny considering this thread is all about how weird the english language is.



Now I want to try and figure out what a racial epitaph would be, aside from a normal epitaph written in someone's native language...

I don't know what an epitaph is...

I was only trying to help :(