"Boy-see" vs "Boy-zee"

CULTURE

THE “BOY-SEE”-“BOY-ZEE” DEBATE

Exploring the correct pronunciation of Boise and why people care

David Collie | Staff Writer | culture@stumedia.boisestate.edu

HOW DO YOU SAY IT?

The questions “where do you live?” or “where do you go to school?” seem pretty straightforward. Most people wouldn’t have to give these questions much thought, but for those living in Boise or attending Boise State, the answer of this question is taken a bit more seriously. Pronouncing the city as “Boy-zee” instead of “Boy-see” might earn some strange or hostile looks—sometimes even outright arguments about being “incorrect.”

So how should it be pronounced, and, more importantly, why do people care?

It would seem logical to start this search by learning the original pronunciation. According to the Idaho State Historical Society, French fur trappers in the area used the French word “boisé”—meaning

wooded—to describe what is now the Boise River. That should mean learning the pronunciation of this word should settle who is correct in this heated debate.

So who’s right? Well, no one. The French pronunciation would be more like “Bwa-zee.”

So why are there no T-shirts that say “Bwa-zee” on them? Gail Shuck, associate professor of linguistics, explained there is technically never a “correct” pronunciation of a word. So technically, even if “Bwa-zee” was how French fur trappers said the word, that does not mean it is correct.

“There are mutually agreed upon pronunciations, and then there are pronunciations that you know are incorrect,” said

Shuck. “Bwa-zee” is a pronunciation that is simply no longer used to describe the city; it would be incorrect to use it today. “Boyzee” and “Boy-see,” on the other hand, are both commonly used, and people know what is being referred to with either.

But this raises the question as to why people care. If either pronunciation can be used to convey the same meaning, why are there shirts, jackets, stickers, people, etc. so ready to profess why one pronunciation is “correct?” Shuck explained why.

“Every single language in the world has internal variation, and because it has internal variation, that variation is socially structured. Certain people say one thing, and certain people say another thing.

It’s not that one thing is correct or not correct—it’s that we want to sound a little more like [one group].”

With the pronunciation of a word comes a set of associations and beliefs about the group of people who pronounce it that way. In the case of Boise, the “Boysee” pronunciation tends to be viewed as the native way of pronouncing it, meaning that people who are proud of living in Boise might use that pronunciation as a way to identify or fit in with that group.

Lecturer in linguistics Chris Vander- Stouwe did just that. A California native, VanderStouwe described why he chose to adopt a new pronunciation.

“I think there’s a lot of animosity in long-term natives in Idaho towards people that are moving into the area,” said VanderStouwe. “One reason that I pronounce it as ‘Boy-see’ is that I worked hard to not be one of those Californians that everyone was going to get mad at.” While this change is fairly minor, VanderStouwe said there are some cases where people will make much larger alterations to their language habits. Vander- Stouwe pointed to a common example of this being people with Southern accents who suppress their speech in order to avoid the negative stereotypes associated with Southerners. On the other hand, someone who comes to the United States with a British accent may try to retain that accent because it is seen as more prestigious.

“It’s partly a conscious choice, it’s partly a class issue, it’s partly an identity issue; it’s the way you perform an identity as a member of a group,” VanderStouwe said.

And because language is linked so strongly with identity, VanderStouwe concluded it is important for people who are passionate about language features to determine whether they feel strongly about the words themselves or the mouths that speak them.