William (Andy) Anderson
United States
Las Vegas
Nevada
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I sent off an Email to the publisher to get the correct answer. But of course it came back as fuzzy when this was posted a few days ago. I think I will now use the French was which is Blow-koo.
Here is my Email and the response.
Objet : I live in the United States, how do you pronounce Blokus?
It is Blow-kus or is Block-us?
Got lots of ways to say it when I posted this question on Boardgamegeek.
Looking forward to your answer.
Wm. Anderson
This is the answer I received from the makers of Blokus.
As we are french, it is rather difficult to help you. But I asked our US distributor and he gave me the following indication for you:
We pronounce it with a "soft o" as in "block." But many customers seem to pronounce it with a "long o" as in "Blow-kus.".
I hope this will help.
Best regards.
Pierre
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David Me
United States
Earth
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They must have wondered "Why the sudden interest in the pronunciation?" I mailed them too and got a bit more.
They say it's a multi-language pun.
"Block us" in English. And "blocus" in French means "blockade".
Confirmed that it's short "o" when pronounced in French as "Blokus". Unverified so far as to the "-oo" at the end. Anyone speak French and can phonetically spell "blocus" for us?
Plus they say that in Japan they don't pronounce the "u" and it's "Bloks".
I first said "BLOW-kus", but switched to "BLOCK-us" a few months ago when I saw that someone else pronounced it that way...'cause it makes sense with the blockish-shaped tiles and the blocking of your opponents & all. Plus we do have "wok", "amok", and "springbok" as precedents. 
Dave
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Based upon my poor understanding of history, science, and ethics...
United States
North Pole
Alaska
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How odd. The French are renown for their helpful character and pleasant demeanor, especially towards those who don't speak fluent French.
Your message must have been forwarded to the Tehran office.
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Eric Haas
United States
Edgewood
Maryland
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davidme wrote: Plus we do have "wok", "amok", and "springbok" as precedents.
I don't know about you, but I pronounce amok to rhyme with yuck. Bluckus?
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Paul Sauberer
United States
Hendersonville
Tennessee
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I actually e-mailed the designer and it looks like it can be pronounced however anyone wants to.
From: contact [mailto:contact@sekkoia.com]
Sent: Fri 9/16/2005 5:02 AM
To: Paul Sauberer
Subject: RE: Proper pronunciation of "Blokus"
Dear Paul,
As we are french, it is rather difficult to help you. But I asked our US distributor and he gave me the following indication for you:
We pronounce it with a "soft o" as in "block." But many customers seem to pronounce it with a "long o" as in "Blow-kus.".
I hope this will help.
Best regards.
Pierre
-----Message d'origine-----
De : Paul Sauberer
Envoyé : mercredi 14 septembre 2005 05:16 À : contact@sekkoia.com Objet : Proper pronunciation of "Blokus"
I am sure that you have had this question before and I seem to remember seeing it on the Blokus web site at one time, but I am wondering what is the proper pronunciation of "Blokus?"
Thank you,
Paul Sauberer
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Michel Fortin
Canada
Longueuil
Québec
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The question is a little off track as the real problem is with the "u", not the "blo". The english "block" pronunciation is the right way to say the first part of the name in french. The ending "s" is not silent. As for the "u", I found some audio files that you can listen to and try imitating...
For women! http://clicnet.swarthmore.edu/rire/abcde/abcd/u.mov
For men! http://www2.unil.ch/ling/phon/aiff/Voyelles/y.aiff
A pronunciation description in english and a mp3 file that demonstrates it:
http://www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar/pronunciation/...
I'm sure the next time you play this game with your english speaking comrades, you'll sound very chic... or snob!
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Norman Petry
Canada
Regina
Saskatchewan
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I'm still planning to pronounce the game as "blow-kuss" (when speaking English). If the publisher wanted people to pronounce it "block-us", they should have spelled it correctly!
The previous thread appears to have been deleted, but the point I made earlier was that in English orthography, a double-consonant (in this case, 'ck' or 'kk') would be needed to "protect" the short vowel sound. Since "k" by itself is used, the preceding vowel is long. Therefore, either the English pronunciation of Blokus is "blow-kuss", or the word was misspelled.
"A double consonant is most often a cue to the pronunciation of a preceding vowel, especially in words of more than one syllable. Consider the pair comma, coma. The double m in the first word tells you that the o is pronounced / a /; the single m of the second tells you it is pronounced /o/. The pair tapping, taping illustrates the same principle, as do super, supper and biter, bitter."
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/phon/phon.spel.html
Ever wonder why we bother to use "ck" in the middle of so many words? Now you know.
If "Blokus" was actually a French word or proper name, I'd probably try to use a French pronunciation, but it isn't. English spelling is already too irregular, and I see no justification for making the problem worse by using a screwy pronunciation for Blokus.
And obviously, I'm taking this waaay too seriously! 
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Brandon Walsh
United States
Saint Louis
Missouri
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blahhhhhhhhhh-kis
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David Me
United States
Earth
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Koldfoot wrote: How odd. The French are renown for their helpful character and pleasant demeanor, especially towards those who don't speak fluent French.
Your message must have been forwarded to the Tehran office.
Hope I didn't imply anywhere that I received anything unpleasant from them. None of my text is verbatim from them at any rate.
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David Me
United States
Earth
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Eric Haas wrote: davidme wrote: Plus we do have "wok", "amok", and "springbok" as precedents. I don't know about you, but I pronounce amok to rhyme with yuck. Bluckus?
It's pronounced either way. I think most probably say it your way though. It was the first one I thought of so I had to toss it in as an example.
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David Me
United States
Earth
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Psauberer wrote: I actually e-mailed the designer and it looks like it can be pronounced however anyone wants to.
I think Hasbro would say the same about Monopoly or Scrabble. : )
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David Me
United States
Earth
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npetry wrote: ...in English orthography, a double-consonant (in this case, 'ck' or 'kk') would be needed to "protect" the short vowel...
"My children ran amock when I stir-fried their pet sjambock in a wock."
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Michael R
United Kingdom
Glasgow
Lanarkshire
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davidme wrote: Confirmed that it's short "o" when pronounced in French as "Blokus". Unverified so far as to the "-oo" at the end. Anyone speak French and can phonetically spell "blocus" for us?
In french, the tendency is not to pronounce the final letter so it would be "blockoo". I am guessing the name is derived from bloc meaning block pronouced block and locus meaning locus pronounced lo-coo. I imagine the c to k transition is to make it nu school supercool rad.
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Norman Petry
Canada
Regina
Saskatchewan
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davidme wrote: npetry wrote: ...in English orthography, a double-consonant (in this case, 'ck' or 'kk') would be needed to "protect" the short vowel... "My children ran amock when I stir-fried their pet sjambock in a wock."
Your children had a whip for a pet? Weird kids! And you fried it?! 
Serously though, words like "amok", "wok", "springbok" and "sjambok" are not proper counterexamples because:
1) All of these words have a terminal "k" sound, and with terminal consonants, it isn't necessary to protect the preceding short vowel by doubling the consonant. Instead, the preceding vowel is expected to be short unless a silent 'e' is added to the word to lengthen it (e.g. "hop" vs. "hope"). For example, words that ends in "-lock" are all pronounced with a short-o sound, and dropping either the "c" or the "k" wouldn't change the pronunciation, though it would be unusual (e.g Ziploc, Quiklok, Surelok, etc.).
2) The reason these words haven't been spelled with a "ck" is because they are recent loanwords from Chinese and Afrikaans that have not been properly anglicised. These days it is not unusual to borrow words by preserving the foreign spelling, and butchering the pronunciation. You see this with words like "springbok", which is properly anglicised as "springbuck", and should be pronounced that way in both English and Dutch (I think).
Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to find a word with a medial "k" or "c" that is not preceeded by a long vowel. I can't think of any.
Here are a few you can rule out:
broken, crocus, focus, hocus pocus, locus, mucus, spoken, token,...
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Chris Kice
United States
Shorewood
Illinois
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davidme wrote: I think Hasbro would say the same about Monopoly or Scrabble. 
Mahn-oh-polly? Ska-ray-ble?
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Stephen Smith
United States
Columbus
Mississippi
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Quote: Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to find a word with a medial "k" or "c" that is not preceeded by a long vowel. I can't think of any.
Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to find a word with a medial "k" that is preceeded by a long o vowel (without falling back on other phonetic rules, like the trailing silent e in your previous list). I can't think of any.
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Ron Parker
United States
Fort Wayne
Indiana
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seppo21 wrote:
Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to find a word with a medial "k" that is preceeded by a long o vowel (without falling back on other phonetic rules, like the trailing silent e in your previous list). I can't think of any.
Okay, even though I assume you're joking.
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David Me
United States
Earth
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I think he meant SHORT "o" sound.
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