How do you pronounce Lubuntu?

[apollothethird]

Can someone advise me (with an audio link) how to pronouce Lubuntu?

Is there something on the web similar to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EADF3TCaK4

I'm interested because I just installed Lubuntu on a client's computer who didn't have the resources for Ubuntu.

Also, for future reference I'd be curious for the official pronunciation of Xubuntu also. But for now Lubuntu is very important because I don't want to deliver the recommended OS with an improper pronunciation.

-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames

[Wayne Twine]

Hi

Well, the South African word "Ubuntu", after which the distro and its varieties is named, is pronounced "Oo boon too" (just the way Mark Shuttleworth himself pronounces it) , so I guess Lubuntu should be pronounced "Loo boon too".

I am a South African, so I must confess that it drives be nuts when folks pronounce it "Oo buhn too".

[lisati]

Hi

Well, the South African word "Ubuntu", after which the distro and its varieties is named, is pronounced "Oo boon too" (just the way Mark Shuttleworth himself pronounces it) , so I guess Lubuntu should be pronounced "Loo boon too".

I am a South African, so I must confess that it drives be nuts when folks pronounce it "Oo buhn too".

Agreed. I live in a predominantly Polynesian area (the lady of the house is of Samoan heritage). As a result my inclination is towards "Loo boon too" as well.

[Muhammad_Ahmad_Mujtaba]

People in my locale say it Ubuntu as U-BUN-2 but i prefer term 'Oo-BUN-2' sounds more legit xD

[Impavidus]

Using International phonetic Alphabet, I'd say lubuntu is pronounced /lu'bun.tu/. All vowels pronounced as the oo in school, with stress on the second syllable, and all consonants having their usual english value.

The pronunciation of Xubuntu is an interesting one. Xubuntu comes from Ubuntu with an X from xfce prepended to it. Ubuntu comes from the closely related Nguni languages (a subgroup of the Bantu languages), where it is pronounced /u'bun.tu/. Although the X has nothing to do with any original Zulu word, Xubuntu is allowed by Zulu or Xhosa phonotactics. It's pronounced /ǁu'bun.tu/, starting with a click sound (the tenuis alveolar lateral click). This is my favorite pronunciation of Xubuntu. However, as click sounds are virtually nonexistent outside of southern and eastern Africa, many people prefer to use the most common pronunciation of the X, giving /ksu'bun.tu/. With english phonotactics forbidding word-initial /ks/, english speaking people usually change this into /zu'bun.tu/. Elsewhere, people may substitute their own native sounds for x. You see, the problem is that about every logical pronunciation of Xubuntu is forbidden by the phonotactics of many languages, not just some obscure ones.

Note that I am not from Africa and have never studied phonetics.

Edit: see this old discussion: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=387144

[lisati]

Interesting observation on Xubuntu. My first thoughts would have been X as in xylophone, i.e. what would normally be written "z" in English, or possibly "ch" as in the Scottish "Loch" or the Dutch pronunciation. Not having had much exposure to African languages beyond "The gods must be crazy" the click didn't occur to me!

[forrestcupp]

I doubt if Xubuntu was meant to sound like a Zulu word. I think it's probably pronounced Zoo-boon-too.

[mips]

I dunno why people are using these long 'oo' sounds.

The 'U' is pronounced like in the word über
The 'bun' is pronounced like in the word bundu or bundesliga
The 'tu' like the word to or two but a slightly shorter sound as in tu-torial.

For the first two I can't think of any similar english sounding words right now so I used german & another zulu word which might be more familiar (bundu bashing), if you took bundu and changed it to buntu that is exactly what the last part of ubuntu minus the u would sound like.

For lubuntu it would sound the name Lulu or the word ludite and the rest the same as above.

This is pretty much how it's pronounced here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KwaZulu-Natal where I live and has the largest Zulu population in the world.

[forrestcupp]

I dunno why people are using these long 'oo' sounds.

The 'U' is pronounced like in the word über
The 'bun' is pronounced like in the word bundu or bundesliga
The 'tu' like the word to or two but a slightly shorter sound as in tu-torial.

For the first two I can't think of any similar english sounding words right now so I used german & another zulu word which might be more familiar (bundu bashing), if you took bundu and changed it to buntu that is exactly what the last part of ubuntu minus the u would sound like.

For lubuntu it would sound the name Lulu or the word ludite and the rest the same as above.

This is pretty much how it's pronounced here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KwaZulu-Natal where I live and has the largest Zulu population in the world.

Obviously, you know what you're talking about, since you live around Zulu. But why have we had it shoved down our throat for so long that it should be pronounced "oo-boon-too," and why does Nelson Mandela seem to pronounce it that way? I'm not arguing with someone who lives there; I just want to know what's the deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA

[mips]

Obviously, you know what you're talking about, since you live around Zulu. But why have we had it shoved down our throat for so long that it should be pronounced "oo-boon-too," and why does Nelson Mandela seem to pronounce it that way? I'm not arguing with someone who lives there; I just want to know what's the deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA

I hear what you are saying, he does pronouce it with longer sounds, maybe because he's old, maybe it's because he's Xhosa and not Zulu or maybe it's just the way he speaks. Listen to the interviewer Tim Modise pronounce it right at the beginning, short sounds, that is how most people here pronounce it. Come to think of it Madiba does have a very distinct way of speaking which is not common here, his voice is well recognised and almost a brand if i could call it that.

Then again I a also pronounce my friends wife's name, sharon, like ozzie ozzborn does it (deliberately) and it drives her up the wall