KOO-kur-eee? koo-KUR-eeee? koo-KREEE? KUK-reee?

timcsaw

timcsaw

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3 syllables????
KOO-kur-eee?
koo-KUR-eeee?

KUK-cure-eeee?
kuk-CURE-eeee?

2 syllables??????
koo-KREEE?
KOO-kreee?

KUK-reee?
kuk-REEE?

How do YOU say it?
How do THEY say it?
How SHOULD I say it so as not to appear more of a buffoon than is already evident;)? Cute-cure-reeeeeeee!:D
 
I go with # 1 myself, hope I'm doing it right. # 3 is probably acceptable also.

I have more issue in the official spelling than I do in the pronunciation.
 
Koooo Koo Reee while the oo is kind of fast and sounds only like 50% of a normal oo.
I tried to show based on the number of letters how much of each oo is in there in relation to each other and not absolute.

At least that's how my wife pronounces it and she's from that area.
 
Actually, after hangin' aroun' with Bawanna, I prefer Big Honkin' Knife.
 
I am a buf-OOON, and I say khukoo-ree, but no one listens. At least I type it right most of the time...
 
I attempted to say it just like Auntie. I'm sure I still don't say it correctly but, my change in pitch sure gets attention.
 
I've heard it said in every way imaginable...

Kuk (rhymes with truck), Kook (rhymes with UKE in ukulele).... sometimes involving 3 distinct syllables (Kuk-ooo-reee or Kook-ooo-reee), or sometimes with only two syllables (Kuk-ree or Kook-ree)... the emphasis can be on any of the possible syllables. I'll have to call Auntie and have her say it for me (like she isn't busy enough! :D).
 
or in other words:
nobody-knows.png

:D
 
I wonder how they say it in Nepal?

For example, if a Nepalese soldier on leave went to see a kami and asked him to make a khukuri, how would he pronounce the word?
 
Auntie and Pala I'm sure know very well. Maybe she can write it phonetically or if nothing else I'm gonna see her next month, I'll ask them then.
I'll even put new batteries in the hearing aid to make sure I get it best I can.
 
Bawanna said:
Auntie and Pala I'm sure know very well. Maybe she can write it phonetically or if nothing else I'm gonna see her next month, I'll ask them then.
I'll even put new batteries in the hearing aid to make sure I get it best I can.
Click to expand...

Cool... nail down the proper number of syllables for starters... gotta' be at least two or three in there.;)
 
You got it, your playing college boy on this poor dumb Missouri dirt farmer. Seems like syllables was them word parts broken down for some unexplained reason that the English school marm thunk up for no good reason that I could ever get a handle on.
 
I'm with Bawanna, perhaps someone could ask her to spell it phonetically. I asked her to pronounce it for me over the phone the other day and after a dozen repeats back and forth I still didn't get it right. Goodness knows she has the pacience of Job! She attempted to explain it as a dffirence of Sherpa dialect. Basically kook-ree. However the ree portion pronounced as dree with a very soft r to d transition. Very difficult to detect with our western ear. Again, perhaps she could spell it for us phonetically. I think if anyone else put her through what I did you'd never score DOTD again. ;)
 
Last edited:
I just received this from Karda via email. I believe it solves the riddle nicely.

If someone does a search on the forum, they would see I've already answered the question of how nepalis pronounce khukuri. They pronounce it as khoo-khoo-dee or khoo-khur-dee with a slight roll of the tongue.

This info comes directly from my conversations with Auntie about this very thing.




Blessings,

Karda
 
Bawanna said:
I just received this from Karda via email. I believe it solves the riddle nicely.

If someone does a search on the forum, they would see I've already answered the question of how nepalis pronounce khukuri. They pronounce it as khoo-khoo-dee or khoo-khur-dee with a slight roll of the tongue.

This info comes directly from my conversations with Auntie about this very thing.




Blessings,

Karda
Click to expand...

Well I'll be... No "reee" in there at all. Thank Karda for me.

But like most things... we'll have to figure out how to appropriately "Mericanize" it. :) Ask an American for a lamb-filled, Greek "year-oh" and they won't know what the heck your talking about until you call it a "GYRO." (and a real Greek will laugh if you call it a "Gyro"). Pays to know your audience I suppose.
 
To hear the word "khukuri" spoken in Nepali, check out this recent video from News24Nepal. It mentions the word "khukuri" multiple times (sometimes too rapidly to dissect):

[video=youtube;yOD7YBpcNlg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOD7YBpcNlg[/video]

From a bad translation of the video description (from Google), the "Khukuri production of Bhojpur has earned a reputation crisis... lack of skilled manpower..."
 
Bawanna said:
You got it, your playing college boy on this poor dumb Missouri dirt farmer. Seems like syllables was them word parts broken down for some unexplained reason that the English school marm thunk up for no good reason that I could ever get a handle on.
Click to expand...

I've been to college. It's simple. Sim-ple has two syllables. Syl-la-ble has three syllables. Does it matter? No. I never did learn the "parts of speech" and I've never been in a situation, in or out of school, where I needed to know. Oh, here's a good one: kuk-ri (or ku-kri) has two syllables and khu-ku-ri has three. Now if only we can learn to pronounce it. Oh yeah, pro-nounce has two syllables. I can't seem to stop. And stop has one syllable....
 
probably variations in pronunciation within the different cultural groups within nepal. you say tomayto and i'll say tomahto, let's call the whole thing off.
[video=youtube;zZ3fjQa5Hls]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3fjQa5Hls[/video]
 
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