How to pronounce 'adobe'?

[Thurlor]

I've often heard people pronounce adobe with a stress on the 'e'. Why is this so? Wouldn't it be a silent 'e' as in abode? I've tried some Google searches but I can't seem to find the reason. At first I thought it was just the company name which was pronounced as such but the same pronunciation is used for the building material. Is this just another example of the irrationality of language?

Does it make me arrogant to refuse using the conventional pronunciation? OMG, the urge to put an 'o' in pronunciation is great (for consistencies sake). I also dislike using its instead of it's when I am discussing something owned by 'it'.

 

[Turniphead]

I've only ever heard (a doe bee). Ehh, I'd put it down to silly humans and their constantly changing languages.

 

[Jennywocky]

If you trace the etymology back, the words it is made from (spanish and arabic, even the Egyptian word for brick) and how they were pronounced I think is contributing to how the word was incorporated into English (with three syllables).

 

[samjonathan]

I've only ever heard (a doe bee).

yh same


also, on a slight tangent, in reference to the question as to why adobe is not pronounced similarly to abode, here is a poem which makes great use of inconsistencies in spelling and pronunciation in the english language that hurts a bit to read out loud http://www.i18nguy.com/chaos.html

 

[Kuu]

the real question is, is it a-doe-bee, or a-do-beh?

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

The more you know...

The word adobe /əˈdoʊbiː/ has existed for around 4,000 years, with relatively little change in either pronunciation or meaning. The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud [i.e., sun-dried] brick." As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "[mud] brick." This was borrowed into Arabic as al-tub (الطّوب al "the" + tub "brick") "[mud] brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe [aˈdobe], still with the meaning "mud brick." English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.

I don't think the tobe part would be pronounced tobee, but i think the ee came in when it was borrowed from Spanish.
I can't imagine the Spaniards pronouncing it adohbee either.
Maybe someone fluent in Spanish could shed a light on that.

 

[Cognisant]

It could be an acronym that became a word, that happens all the time and I find it hard to believe anyone would choose to market their software as "mud brick".

 

[Brontosaurie]

Eih_DÔB

 

[Solitaire U.]

'adobe' is a Spanish word. The construction of the silent final -e changing the sound of the vowel preceding it (the 'o' in the case of 'adobe'), does not exist in Spanish. Spanish and English share the same a,e,i,o,u vowels, but In Spanish, all vowels are always voiced, and they only have 1 sound. The Spanish 'e' vowel is pronounced exactly the same as the English long 'a'.

The common English pronunciation of 'adobe' (voiced like 'adobee') is actually corrupt. The correct pronunciation should follow the principle of Spanish vowel pronunciation:
ah, ae, ee, o, oo

...as should the pronunciation of all Spanish-derived words (like Los Angeles...LOs Anheles).

Hence, adobe is correctly pronounced not as 'adobee' but as 'adobae'.

Go to google translate, type in 'adobe', and listen to the pronunciations.

 

[BigApplePi]

Adobe? You could pronoun it, "firecracker" but that would be a deviant choice. If people said, "Firecracker? What do you mean firecracker?", you could just spell out A-D-O-B-E. Problem solved.

 

[pernoctator]

OMG, the urge to put an 'o' in pronunciation is great (for consistencies sake).

For konsistensy's sake, the possessive of consistency should be consistency's, and the plural (as you incorrectly applied here) should be consistencys.

 

[Thurlor]

Well, this will teach me to write silly posts when I'm sick and medicated.

 

[pernoctator]

If you want to write it's instead of its, you must also write they's, you's, she's, he's, us', we's, I's, me's, and who's. For consistency's sake.

 

[Solitaire U.]

consistencys

Actually, it's spelled 'consistencies'. Consonant + -y = -ies, and all that.

 

[BigApplePi]

If you want to write it's instead of its, you must also write they's, you's, she's, he's, us', we's, I's, me's, and who's. For consistency's sake.

Can we'uns extend this'uns proposal to pernoctator's and adobe's? I'm at my wits wit's end.

 

[pernoctator]

Actually, it's spelled 'consistencies'. Consonant + -y = -ies, and all that.

Yes, I meant that's how it should be spelled if we were concerned with consistency. I thought it was ironic that he happily used another English spelling inconsistency in a sentence about an English spelling inconsistency.

Really, making English spelling consistent would require so many tweaks that it would become nearly unrecognizable:

Jenrali, then, th impruvmnt wu'd ka'ntinu yir by yir. Bai yir 15 or so' it wu.d fainli bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi rida'ndnt letrz "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now ja'st a memori in the maindz ov th o'ld timrz -- tu ripleis "ch", "igh & i-e", and "th" rispektivli. An S look-alyk "5" cu.d bi iusd for "sh".
Fynli, xen, aftr som 20 yirz 'v orthografikl riform, wi wu.d hav a lojikl, ko'hira'nt speling in ius thruaut x Ingli5- spiiking w'rld.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RefactorEnglish

 

[r4ch3l]

http://youtu.be/cYfjq3ZYZbA?t=58s