Okay, this has been bothering me.

[Congratulations]

What's the correct pronunciation for "boehm"?

[Aanvil]

What's the correct pronunciation for "boehm"?

I always figured it as "bow-um".

Love to hear if its any different.

[Jon C.]

What's the correct pronunciation for "boehm"?

I have a Bavarian sitting right in my office, and he says it is:
bo-e-m The "o" is like Bowie
Hope this helps, he sounds like a bull frog when he say it boem, boem!

[Congratulations]

"Bo-e-m"? Is that three syllables or two?

[brotherwind]

"Bo-e-m"? Is that three syllables or two?

Actually Theobald Boehm was German. These days it could be spelled Böhm as well as Boehm, the latter being a somewhat antiquated form.
Notice, it consists of one single syllable, having one single vocal in between two consonants.

Difficult to describe but the "oe" or "ö" is pronounced like the middle of the English word "sir" but with b and m around the vocal. Otherwise to those how know French it sounds like "eu" in couleur or Pasteur or beurre.

Hope I could help you.

Moritz

[jemtheflute]

Moritz has beaten me to it with the info about pronunciation and the umlaut (the two little dots over the o) - which is the correct German spelling. I think the oe version is really just us being lazy on our English keyboards about not finding the o+umlaut symbol, nowadays at least. I plead guilty. Formerly it was an attempt - and a misleading one as is apparent - also to suggest the correct pronunciation to English speaking eyes. It is indeed a single syllable with a slightly nasalised vowel sound similar to that in modern RP British English "worm" (where the r is effectively non-existent). There is an English word "berm" (meaning the narrow, level piece of ground between a ditch and the bank formed from the spoil cast up from the excavation thereof in order that the spoil not immediately fall back in) which, apart from the somewhat more nasal, plummy quality of the German dipthong vowel sound, is as near a match as I can think of.

[johnkerr]

This is why I play the wooden flute, so I don't have to worry about how to pronounce Boehm.

[skh]

German has no nasal vowel sounds.

[jemtheflute]

German has no nasal vowel sounds.

Thanks, Sonja! I have never studied German, so I bow (of course) to your native knowledge. In my defence, I wasn't (probably foolishly) using "nasal" in its strict linguistic sense, more as a way to try to describe how to make the sound. I think - and please correct me if I'm wrong - that this particular sound is made well to the rear and low in the mouth with the back of the tongue drawn down and a sort of upward air-pressure towards the back of the palate that creates a slightly "swallowed" sound that partly seems to come out of the nose????? The English "berm" is a much flatter vowel sound. I don't off-hand know the correct linguistic terms.

[rh]

This is why I play the wooden flute, so I don't have to worry about how to pronounce Boehm.

BTW is it RUD-awl, ROOD-awl, RUD-dull, ROOD-dull, rud-AWL... ?

I think i can guess how to pronounce Pratten and Nicholson.

[pancelticpiper]

The "O" with the umlaut is a "rounded front vowel", which English no longer has. Modern English has a rounded back vowel, the vowel in "boot". So to get close to the O with the umlaut, round your lips as if you are going to say "oo" (as in "boot"), but make the inside of your mouth say "ee" (as in "beet").
Old English did have this sound, in words like "cyning" (king).
Scots Gaelic has a sound like this in words like "aobhar".

[Gordon]

What's the correct pronunciation for "boehm"?

I have a Bavarian sitting right in my office, and he says it is:
bo-e-m The "o" is like Bowie
Hope this helps, he sounds like a bull frog when he say it boem, boem!

Is that Bowie, as in Bowie knife, or Bowie, as in David Bowie? Apparently, he pronounces it differently than most American DJs, who say it the same way as the knife. Of course, he might be wrong, as he's vastly outnumbered.

[CranberryDog]

What's the correct pronunciation for "boehm"?

I have a Bavarian sitting right in my office, and he says it is:
bo-e-m The "o" is like Bowie
Hope this helps, he sounds like a bull frog when he say it boem, boem!

Is that Bowie, as in Bowie knife, or Bowie, as in David Bowie? Apparently, he pronounces it differently than most American DJs, who say it the same way as the knife. Of course, he might be wrong, as he's vastly outnumbered.

There is Jim Bowie, the hero of the Alamo: boo like a ghost says "BOO!" and wee like going down on the roller cooster, WEEEEEEEE!".

David Jones aka David Bow wee or BOw WEE like bow wow wow, dog barking (take a bow). I should know; I am a Texan and was a DJ back in the day when David Bowie changed his name from David Jones because there was a Monkee named David Jones. Hope that clears things up.

[peeplj]

The way I've heard Boehm pronounced by professors was "bame" (to rhyme with "same").

Disclaimer: I went to college in Louisiana.

--James

[Congratulations]

Ah, I had a German-speaking friend explain the umlaut thingy to me a couple of weeks ago, so the "berm"ish pronunciation makes sense.

Mystery solved.