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?

Ah now I would say poor/moor as poo-er/moo-er and pour as pore

Book/buck, look/luck, took/tuck sound the same in my accent.

Brooke would sound like bruck for us.

And in Yorkshire.

People pronounce names based on their accent all the time and no one notices. I'm Scottish, and my name contains an 'r' sound. In my accent, you can clearly hear the rhotic 'r'. But in southern English, the 'r' is dropped. If I spent my time correcting English friends and colleagues, I'd never get anything done.

The issue here is that in the family's accent 'Brook' sounds like 'book' but not like 'moon'. In OP's accent, 'Brook', 'book' and 'moon' all have the same elongated 'oo' - like a cow mooing. Not an active choice on OP's part, just a natural accent that's hard to break away from.

Look has a couple of different pronunciations. Haven’t you noticed from the people around you, or on tv?

Honestly I've got to admit I didn't realise they could be said differently until I was in my 30s, I don't think I'd ever heard a southern person say luck/look in the same sentence so hadn't realised the sounds were slightly different. It was only after a discussion like this that I had to Google how the words sounded in a southern accent

There aren’t many Londoners up here in Yorkshire 🤣 the only time we might hear that accent is on the occasional tv programme.

This is what blows my mind. I’m in north-east Scotland, have lived in Scotland my whole life, but I absolutely know that other parts of the UK pronounce things differently. How could I not?! I watch TV, listen to podcasts, meet people from other places, travel. We have so much exposure to people from all over the world and different voices and accents, but half the people on this thread have apparently never left the confines of Little Wotham on the Water or met any other human being. It’s really weird.

I'm mystified by this. My interpretation is that the way the OP pronounces these words is the standard way. I'm Scottish. Do people really say "buck" for "book". Nevertheless, if the child wants her name to be pronounced Bruck then I would make an effort to do it.

I now live in Canada. We inadvertently gave our daughter a name which sounds totally different when Canadians say it, than when I say it with my flat Scottish vowels. It's just what it is.

Names are different from other words, you pronounce them as the person themselves (or the parents, in the case of a child) pronounces it. Regardless of if you'd normally pronounce the combination of letters differently in other words.

I’m confused why everyone is so confused by the families pronunciation. I’m from Manchester and Brooke would (and does for the Brooke I know) rhyme with truck here. But agree it’s just your accent rather than you mispronouncing it. My sons name is pronounced differently by my Irish and Scottish relatives and it’s never occurred to me to try to correct them.

I don't agree.

If a Cockney says their name is Dave or Sandra and you're from Yorkshire or Scotland, you're going to sound daft putting on the full Albert Square to say it, and vice versa.

There’s two versions of oo, so food and book are not the same subs. But it’s not halfway between u and oo, they are all equally different. I see what you mean though if you pronounce all oo words the same.

Probably unpopular opinion: The child is being unreasonable 😅

She needs teaching about regional accents. I have a simple name, said totally differently by the southern English compared to how I say it. (N. Irish) Think 'David' if I was a bloke. Imagine trying to get southerners to pronounce 'David' the way the Scottish do. It's comical, and unreasonable to expect people to imitate another accent. She needs to make peace with people saying words differently based on where they're from.

Exactly! You’d sound like you were taking the pee out of their accent

Have things changed? i had elocution lessons (not by choice they were at school) and we were taught that it's look and book to rhyme with duck ie not a long oo sound. My FIL is from Liverpool and my daughter used to ask him to say those words when she was younger as he said them differently to anyone she heard in person or on the TV/Radio. I'm from East Lancs and would say bruck to rhyme with truck. And like Brooke Shields, and like Brooklyn Beckham.

Or Brook the same as the water feature. Or do people pronounce that Brewk.

If I try and say look with a southern accent it ends up as lurk, I just can't do it.

How can food and book not be the same?

I say Brooke as bruck. That's my accent. But I agree with you here. Sandra from London probably pronounced it Sarndra, whereas from here it would be sand-ra. Long A and short A.

I wouldn't start using Sarndra in that instance.

No they're not, my DH has southern relatives and they pronounce my daughters name differently because vowels sound different in their accent, it would be very odd for me to try and make them say it with the flat northern "ay" sound

Ha ha so true! It’s not like Billy Connolly would go American mid-sentence when he says the name of his American wife Pamela.

Different accents...

Food is an oooo sound for me. Book sounds like buck.

This sums up the “I’m right everyone else is wrong” opinion some people have on accents.

im guessing this poster is from the south east…

I assume you’re looking to be pointlessly offensive with your dyslexia remark. But you describe my family exactly and we would all say look (and potentially therefore Brooke) differently.

As a southerner, I read it as OP pronounces it more as "Brewk" with an 'ooh' sound in the middle, and when she writes 'Bruck' I envision it as what I would say, which would be a shorter -ook sound...so not actually a 'u' sound like you'd say in truck or muck? But like the -oo in, say, shook?

But it's hard to write how I would pronounce Brook in comparison to another similar word because if someone says them in OP's accent then they read them that way too I guess 😂