Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Poll, sort of: Pronunciation: "PRAY-lood" or "PRELL-yood"?

Just curious.

I have no idea what's the proportion for either way of saying it.
And BTW I won't be surprised if some of you say that you say it in some other way, like maybe "PREH-lood" or maybe something with the accent on the other syllable.

If it were possible to do an actual poll on the top of the thread, like it is on some other sites, I'd do it, but I don't think we can.

I'm surprised that I have no idea what's the proportion of how people say it -- but I don't. All I know is, I do hear it both ways.

Me: pray-lood

Prey - liude.

That’s how I say it.

Closest to Mark's second example = PRELL-yood. (where yood rhymes with food)
That was quite frustrating to type. Spellcheck kept correcting my spelling.

Definitely Prey-lude.

"Prell-yood" according to the Oxford dictionary.

However, it's a French word, and "prey-lood" or "PREH-lood" is maybe closer to the French pronunciation. But still not the same.

It originates from Latin of course - "Praeludium". The Germans use the Latin form - why not in English as well?

I say PRAY-lood.

But if it's a particularly sensual piece, I say PRAY-lewd.

Definitely PRAY lood. ((Rhythming with food)

Prell-yood here - the OED version. My accent is very much British RP (and slightly dated)

PRAY-lood for me. I've always thought PRELL-yood sounds just a bit pretentious (edit: that is, if an American is saying it that way...as with lots of Brit ways of saying things!). Either is correct, plus four more pronunciations, at: https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=prelude

Huh -- "hybrid"!
Or maybe it's righter to say that my 2 choices wrongly split the 2 correctest things of the pronunciation!

My biggest surprise here is that spellcheck didn't mind "correctest."

Clever.

Prell-yood.

Pray, Lood.

In which langage ? The word is coming from medieval latin then french. In which case none of the 2 pronunciations is actually the original one. Most english speakers have difficulty with the closed e and u, so it goes to a more pronunciation. As an english adapted word, does it matter ?

If you look at the dictionary link I cited, it has that "lyood" second part listed among the valid pronunciations.

I have never heard it called a "pray"-lood! That seems a bizarre way to pronounce it. Always, a "prell"-liood. I think that is the pronunciation here in the UK.

I think pray-lood is something only said in america. I have never heard of anyone saying it like that. In uk I think everyone says prell-yood.

Yeah, well, we earned our right to call it pray-lood when we threw your stinking tea into Boston Harbor! 'Murica!

And if you think this is bad, you haven't lived in the US to deal with "nuckular" and other abominations...