Why do Americans say "e-moo", instead of "eem-you" for emu?

Question

Why hasn't anybody told them that they're mispronouncing it? As it's an Aboriginal name for the bird on the Australian Coat of Arms, I think any Aussie would know best.

Well, the inventors of the word were Indigenous Australians, and the bird originates from Australia, so I'd say that we know how to say it correctly......!

Homer Simpson said it!!! I've heard lots of other Americans say it incorrectly, and I was afraid it would grow in usage. I just want to contribute to an environment of the useful exchange of knowledge. Not blaming anyone.......!!!!

Answer 1

LOL i never knew...thx (^_^) but im not american...^_^

Answer 2

Being white I prefer to be called white. For me when names have a label added it creates more division between people. I think it was Bill Cosby that really disliked the term "African-American". He had said that he knew little about Africa and was born and raised in the US and that made him an American. A black American. I know little about England where my ancestors came from and I would not want to be addressed as "English-American" or "Caucasian" or "Euro-American". I believe that political correctness in this country is a cancer. It is kept going by people who want to divide this country. The people of the US should be "one people". Our country is crumbling and and these names do nothing to bring us together.

Answer 3

Americans mispronounce a lot of things. They say "rough" when they mean "roof", and "rout" when they mean "route". I can't help laughing when I hear American tourists try to pronounce "quay". Usually, it becomes "qway" or "kwai", instead of "key". Having said that, I am sure that Americans find Australian and British pronunciations equally amusing.

Answer 4

Because of our accent, it's unnatural for us to pronounce a "u" at the end of a word as "you", but rather "oo"... and even if we know the pronounciation as you know it, it becomes more of a labored thing, instead of flowing naturally. To be honest, I can't think of any English word that ends with a "you" instead of "oo" (the closest I can think of would be gnu ["new", not "gun-you" or "nyou"]).

Kind of like trying to prounounce mate as "maih-t" as you Aussies do instead of "may-t"... it just doesn't work for us, and the more we try, the sillier we sound.

Answer 5

Gotta love Aussies mispronunciation of heaps of other normal words like wahdah (water) and weah'd (weird)

Answer 6

I'm American and I've always said "eem-you" I guess I just paid more attention in school than most.

Answer 7

Because they dont have emu's in the USA so they are not familar with it....

Just like how they say Brisbane funny...... "Brizzzbaaaannnnnn"

and they talk faster than us, I think that has a bit to do with it.


..

Answer 8

I saw eem-you, and I'ved lived in American for 6 years.
Those who say "e-moo" are totally wrong.


:)

Answer 9

aussie's do know best, american's pronounce everything weird. you'd think if it were pronounced emoo that's how it would be spelt, but hey they're happy in their ignorance. i guess i make up for it by insisting on saying arkansas instead of arkansaw. but seriously how do they get that pronounciation?

Answer 10

I've never heard an American call it e-moo. It is always e-myoo.

When you hear someone make that mistake, why don't you correct them?

Answer 11

You must be speaking to people with speech problems. I and most people I know say it the way you state that it should be said.