Photo by me, of the correct pronunciation, now and forever.

Help me out, here. I say it has one syllable. That is how I pronounce it: wīld. One vowel sound. The l is a consonant; it does not get a discrete uh to announce its arrival. The Oxford English Dictionary agrees with me.




Deadspin Video Director Tim Burke, on the other hand, says it has two syllables: wy and uld. wī-əld. This is madness. (Merriam-Webster allows it. Pfft.)

Tim also says that, when you are pronouncing the letter w—like, not the sound it makes, but the name of it—it has two syllables; that it is pronounced either dub-yew or dub-yah. This, also, is madness. W, I say, is pronounced double-yew, and therefore has three syllables: duh, bull, and yew.


(We were debating whether you save syllables by referring to sad divorced dad collection center Buffalo Wild Wings as “BW3,” as Tim does, because it used to be named “Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck,” back before it dropped the “& Weck.”)

Please help us settle all of this. We are fucking maniacs.