AIBU for pronouncing the name Brooke as BrOOKe rather than Bruck

[MoserRothOrangeandAlmond]

I’m a Geordie and pronounce words such as Book, Look and Cook with an oo sound rather than the uck sound.
A family who are from about an hour a way said that her daughter is sick of everyone pronouncing her name incorrectly.

I explained that it’s an accent thing as we pronounce those words with an oo sound rather that uck so it wouldn’t occur to most people to pronounce it that way and they wouldn’t deliberately mispronounce her name!

Just as if I go another part of the country or different country they pronounce my name differently depending on their accent.

AIBU?

So you heard her parents calling her something different and you didn’t think to check?

you know now just say it the preferred way in the future

But you're Scottish so that makes sense, but to me, as a Liverpudlian, it doesn't. I say it as Bruck. So, no they aren't pronouncing it "incorrectly" because that would entirely depend on where in the UK they come from.

Fine.

But for other people, they're not.

How is this difficult for people to grasp?

Yes we do. A number of people have explained that book and buck sound exactly the same with a Yorkshire accent.

I'm Irish & after your comment I noticed I pronounce it Bruck and when I say look / luck or book / buck, there is no difference 🙈🙈😅

This is driving me brucking mental.

Thank you so much oh my goodness, as a Scot I was so confused as to how on earth there was a way to say Brooke without an ‘oo’ sound but I understand now!

I love this! Your accent is like mine.

Ahem - it’s driving me brooking mental. Get it right😃

Yes I know - that was the video I posted above !There are a myriad different "northern" accents. I was talking about the confusion around bruck that this has descended.

Look/brook/book will be prounced differently in many different accents.

This thread is insane because no one is reading what has gone before and it's descended into 'but I don't say it like that/no one says it like that' and not about OP's original problem which is actually about asking someone to change their regional accent for one word to avoid 'offense'.

Accents will always vary, but surely it doesn't matter where you are from, you must have heard them SAY their daughters name many times so you KNOW how it is pronounced, a name is a name and it should be pronounced how the person with the name pronounces it.

You CHOOSING to pronounce it differently like you are talking about a small stream, rather than calling the person what they are called is just ignorant to be fair.

If you had such an accent that the UCK sound was difficult for you I'd understand, but it sounds like you can manage "truck" and "luck" without mangling it so at this point you are just being petty by continuing to call her a completely different name.

I know 2 Aarons, both Geordies. Both say their name Air-un - any southerner I know by that name is pronounced Ah-run. It doesn’t come naturally to me at all to pronounce it as Air-un, but it would be wild for me to continually pronounce it “my way” when they’ve made it very clear they don’t feel that is their name - the pronunciation is perfectly within my speaking range, I just make the effort to say it like that.

I think there’s a degree to which it can be different, and what’s changeable or not. I’m not going to make an American say my name in an English accent because the subtle difference in sound is so bothersome, but these are two different sounds that you are capable of producing whether you naturally read it one way or not. She responds to the name Bruck, say Bruck. Easy.

Have you noticed that before Look North there is the national news and after Look North is the One Show, and that both before and after them there are many, many, many other programmes presented by people who don't all come from Yorkshire??

I do think YABU if she has told you she doesn't like it, yes.

I'm sure she wouldn't be as bothered if you were strangers reading her name in your accent, but you do know her and hear her name often so you know it's pronounced Bruck, not Brook.

Sometimes names don't roll of the tongue easily, I get that. I have 2 friends who insist on either the use of their kid's full name at all times (bit of a mouthful and sounds formal) or that pronounce the name a bit differently to the norm, but you know what, it's their kid. Not mine to choose.

I have a name that is different in Southern & Midland accents (where I'm from) to Northern. My best mate is Northern and it really doesn't bother me that she says it differently.

If it did, she'd change how she says it. I'm sure of that.

Of course 🤣 touchy.

I’m just pointing out that not everyone hears a London accent everyday. Or takes much notice to it when they do.

@SweetFancyMoses

No one pronounces book as buck.

Errrr, have you ever met anyone from the vast swathe of country that is the Midlands?

Book and buck are exactly the same here.

I’m sitting here, saying words over and over and now realise I can’t speak English properly.
I would try and pronounce as parents want, but I would probably slip up constantly because it’s not how I speak.

Brooke and Truck absolutely do not rhyme in my (south west) accent. I imagine in a geordie accent Brooke would become like Brewk to my ear.

I wouldn't find it offensive if someone pronounced my name differently due to an accent though anyway.

I just don't understand how people are so insular that they cannot comprehend that a word might be pronounced differently elsewhere, or cannot call to mind the very different ways that, for example, typically southern and northern English people speak.

We all know that some people say grasss and some people say graaas, or bath and baaath, right?

Are they really saying that they just didn't notice that some people say luck differently to them???

I pronounce bath as baff😂

Look North isn't Yorkshire, it's Manchester.

To bring things back to the child called Brooke, I think you are being unreasonable to view this as the same thing as pronouncing brook the river. It’s a name. It’s pronounced however the parents who named her want it pronounced. Just like if you meet someone with a non-English name who has the emphasis in a place you’d never put it

I've just sitting her repeating to myself brooke/luck/book etc etc and I've lost all sense of what anything is supposed to sound like 😆

I assumed you pronounce 'book' and 'luck' as I would, but actually it might be nothing like that at all.

Do you pronounce book with a long oooo sound. Like a scary booooo from a ghost. If so, that's not the oo I'd expect to be used in Brooke.

Just pronounce her name as they've asked you do. It'll feel normal after a while.

Op has explained this.
No, she didn't, in exactly the same way she didn't stop her friend every time she said any other word differently to her because of their different accents.

Which is completely normal.

Can you imagine a conversation that went
"Brooke got a new reading book from school today."
"Hang on, don't you mean Brewk got a new bewk from skewl todeh?"

Where every sentence Op was just "checking" if her friend meant to be pronouncing words differently to her? How annoying would that get?

OP I think you were fine to point it out, if anything its helpful (tbh im surprised she didnt work it out herself) but now that's she's said it annoys her not sure why you're avoiding saying her name at all, instead of just saying it the way they want. It's not like your mouth can't make that sound, it just needs a tiny bit of reminding to say it differently to your natural instinct.

It's not that hard, English is full of words that aren't pronounced exactly how they would be phonetically so not as if it isn't something most people can do.

I don’t think I did say that, did I?

I think grass and bath are quite obviously different. The sounds are completely different, and the length of the word.

Whereas look/luck (with a short oo compared to a u), sound like they’re more subtle. Unless you’re specifically listening out for the differences it’s not something everyone would notice. Particularly if you don’t hear a southern/London accent all the time.

That’s just my experience anyway (and I’m well travelled etc. etc. I have definitely left the Shire…)