Author Topic: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".  (Read 3724 times)

Wowbagger

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Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« on: 31 December, 2019, 06:32:38 pm »
As any self-respecting hitch-hiker knows, it's pronounced Beetle Juice. But my dear wife heard a R4 announcer or newsreader using said pronunciation earlier today and she became quite hot under the collar about it. I think she defers to the Patrick Moore pronunciation which is Bettle Geuse (hard G).

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Phil W

Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #1 on: 31 December, 2019, 06:42:03 pm »
The former , anyone who listened to the radio series , audio books, would know that.

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Betelgeuse

Your wife needs to humbly admit she’s wrong and go get an ice pack for her neck.

 ;D

Pedal Castro

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #2 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:06:19 pm »
As an astronomer, I go with Patrick Moore all the way.

Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #3 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:14:59 pm »
apparently it's about to go off in a very big bang, (I blame global warming)

would be quite something to watch if it did go all supernova in our time, may be even see it during the day?

Basil

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #4 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:18:00 pm »
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #5 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:20:14 pm »
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Basil

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #6 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:23:07 pm »
 ;D
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Arellcat

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #7 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:44:52 pm »
I think she defers to the Patrick Moore pronunciation which is Bettle Geuse (hard G).

I thought I remembered Moore pronouncing it /ˈbɛtəldʒɜːz/, Bettle Jeuhse, but I may be wrong.  In any case, Wikipedia even disagrees with old Pat, suggesting four alternatives involving 'e' vs. 'ee' and a final 's' or 'z'.  Seems a given that the final vowel combination is 'oo'.

Any Arabic speakers here?  "geuse" means "Orion".
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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #8 on: 31 December, 2019, 07:46:27 pm »
/ˈɡɪlfərd/ isn't it?

Arellcat

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #9 on: 31 December, 2019, 11:30:36 pm »
 :)
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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #10 on: 31 December, 2019, 11:45:47 pm »
The Raymond Luxury Yach-t interview applies... it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove". :demon:
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T42

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #11 on: 01 January, 2020, 09:18:38 am »
As an astronomer, I go with Patrick Moore all the way.

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Mr Larrington

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #12 on: 01 January, 2020, 10:35:33 am »
Battlegoose.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #13 on: 01 January, 2020, 10:44:19 am »
The former , anyone who listened to the radio series , audio books, would know that.

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Betelgeuse

Your wife needs to humbly admit she’s wrong and go get an ice pack for her neck.

 ;D

Do you recall that episode of Fawlty Towers in which Mr. O'Reilly patronised Sybil and Basil winced spectacularly? I'm doing that wince now...
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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #14 on: 02 January, 2020, 01:15:00 pm »
apparently it's about to go off in a very big bang, (I blame global warming)

would be quite something to watch if it did go all supernova in our time, may be even see it during the day?

It may have already happened but the light hasn't reached us yet.....

ETA - From Wikipedia
Quote
In late December 2019, multiple scientists reported that Betelgeuse had become unusually faint.[54][55] There was popular speculation about the possibility of an imminent supernova explosion.[56][57][58] With what Astronomy magazine described as "bizarre dimming" occurring in December 2019,[59] Betelgeuse reached its faintest level in more than a century, with magnitudes as low as +1.294 reported in the Astronomer's Telegram[54][55] and by Stella Kafka, president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.[60] Mainstream media reports noted that this dropped Betelgeuse from ninth most luminous star in the sky to outside the top 20[61][62] and discussed speculation that Betelgeuse might be about to go supernova,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67] though astronomers including astrophysics PhD student (at UC Berkeley) Sarafina Nance and Ángel López-Sánchez (astrophysicist and science communicator at Macquarie University) have noted[61][64] and tweeted that this was not expected for around another 100,000 years,[68][69] citing work by the bad astronomer from 2014[70] who has also written about the recent coverage.[71]

So we might have to wait a bit longer.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #15 on: 02 January, 2020, 06:12:13 pm »
Prof. Brian Cox is a Beetle Juice man. I think her utter devotion to that lanky learned Lancastrian might have changed her mind.

She and I have been at odds with a number of pronunciations over the past half-century or so, not altogether surprising given the difference of our local accents. One which has not been as a result of locality is her preference to refer to one of the leading ladies in A Midsummer Night's Dream as though she is a device for igniting large aquatic mammals.
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CrazyEnglishTriathlete

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #16 on: 03 January, 2020, 08:25:43 pm »
apparently it's about to go off in a very big bang, (I blame global warming)

would be quite something to watch if it did go all supernova in our time, may be even see it during the day?

It may have already happened but the light hasn't reached us yet.....


As it's 640 light years away, if it went off after 1380.... we would know yet.
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ElyDave

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #17 on: 04 January, 2020, 08:00:57 am »
Prof. Brian Cox is a Beetle Juice man. I think her utter devotion to that lanky learned Lancastrian might have changed her mind.

She and I have been at odds with a number of pronunciations over the past half-century or so, not altogether surprising given the difference of our local accents. One which has not been as a result of locality is her preference to refer to one of the leading ladies in A Midsummer Night's Dream as though she is a device for igniting large aquatic mammals.

I don't remember Mrs Seal Barbecue in that one
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Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #18 on: 04 January, 2020, 01:22:29 pm »
Prof. Brian Cox is a Beetle Juice man. I think her utter devotion to that lanky learned Lancastrian might have changed her mind.

She and I have been at odds with a number of pronunciations over the past half-century or so, not altogether surprising given the difference of our local accents. One which has not been as a result of locality is her preference to refer to one of the leading ladies in A Midsummer Night's Dream as though she is a device for igniting large aquatic mammals.

I don't remember Mrs Seal Barbecue in that one

No, my dear, she wasn't, but Hippo Lighter was.
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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #19 on: 09 January, 2020, 10:33:23 am »
As any self-respecting hitch-hiker knows, it's pronounced Beetle Juice. But my dear wife heard a R4 announcer or newsreader using said pronunciation earlier today and she became quite hot under the collar about it. I think she defers to the Patrick Moore pronunciation which is Bettle Geuse (hard G).
Patrick Moore is (was) correct.

Beetle Juice is a deliberate mispronunciation, intended to be humorous.
This can sometimes come back to bite you. My sister's father in law was in the dog house for some time when his daughter (Penny) went to university, and discovered that her full name wasn't pronounced to rhyme with antelope. Persephone pronounced as percy-phone is the other one I remember causing flak (Wedgewood plates).

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #20 on: 09 January, 2020, 12:15:32 pm »
The first time I came across the name Penelope was in a Thunderbirds book. I naturally pronounced it (in my mind) to rhyme with antelope. This is better than the other way round, if only because it's hard to think of a joke about a coin running away to get married. I don't recall ever meeting a Penelope IRL and very rarely a Penny.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #21 on: 09 January, 2020, 04:36:11 pm »
The first time I came across the name Penelope was in a Thunderbirds book. I naturally pronounced it (in my mind) to rhyme with antelope. This is better than the other way round, if only because it's hard to think of a joke about a coin running away to get married. I don't recall ever meeting a Penelope IRL and very rarely a Penny.

I have a very good friend who is a Penelope and she uses two different abbreviations, Pen & Penny. I also have a cousin Penny. I don't know if she is a Penelope or not. Furthermore, my older sister had a friend called Penny with whom she used to go horse riding.

So far as I am aware, all of these Pennies were minted in 1947, so not so rare as the 1933 ones.

My father used to have a small whimsy he would trot out from time to time. He maintained that his mother should have been called Penelope (she was actually Sarah) because my paternal grandfather's name was Inkerman (I can see no logic to this as he was born about 30 years after the battle of the same name) and then my grandparents would have been Pen & Ink.
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ian

Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #22 on: 09 January, 2020, 04:43:53 pm »
Surely if you're a Penelope of any flavour, you absolutely must have a pony.

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #23 on: 09 January, 2020, 04:46:51 pm »
Prof. Brian Cox is a Beetle Juice man. I think her utter devotion to that lanky learned Lancastrian might have changed her mind.

I'm sure I heard him pronounce it Bettle-Geuse (with a hard g) on that prog he co-presents with Dara O'Briain. Maybe he uses both, depending upon the audience  ???.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Pronunciation of "Betelgeuse".
« Reply #24 on: 09 January, 2020, 04:51:25 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEw6X2BhIy8

Prof Brian Cox saying Beetlejuice.
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