Sneak’s innocuous post last month about the best way to pronounce “www” stirred up an unexpected ferment. Someone called “PM” (presumably not the PM) suggested that if the nine syllables of double-U-double-U-double-U seem like too much bother, “why not say ‘six-U’? It has only two syllables”. Alistair Birnie, meanwhile, says, “Don't you know it should be pronounced ‘wibble’?” - a pronunciation used by Birnie, Edmund Blackadder and nobody else, Sneak suspects. Ex-pat Mick Symonds notes that the Dutch say “way-way-way”, which is “much quicker and simpler” and that Britons should be a bit more willing to learn from the cloggies. As if. Symonds also picks up on the Nintendo Wii console and suggests that we could all start saying “wii-wii-wii”. This would be iffy anyway, but doubly so following Chris Daws’ observation that all the wee-wee-related Nintendo gags are misguided: “As anyone from England's picturesque North-East will tell you, Wii is quite obviously pronounced ‘why-aye’”.

03 Jul 2006