How is the word "beau" pronounced? Are there regional variations?

I had always thought it rhymed with "throw." However, today I heard a song on the radio in which the woman was singing about when she is with her "boo." At first I thought, "That's a funny slang for a lover." But then it occured to me that she might be saying "beau" and that she pronounces it "boo." THEN it occurred to me that I might be completely wrong in thinking that "beau" rhymes with "throw."

How do you pronounce that word?

According to Webster's Dictionary (click the speaker icon), and my french teachers, you're right to rhyme it with throw. I've never heard anyone pronounce beau "boo," so my guess is she wasn't trying to pronounce beau (I've know people to use boo as a pet name).

Methos is right, in fact all the words that terminate or have within an "o", "au" or "eau" are also pronounced like "throw" to take your exemple.

"Beaucoup","chateau", "faux",etc...

In some parts of the US this pronunciation has been corrupted, as in the case of the name Beauchamp (bee-chum).

Molière must be rolling over in his grave.

I've wondered where the term "boo" came from. Maybe it really is a corruption of "beau"?

At least Beauchamp was not corrupted by Americans, Juanruiz; de Beauchamp was the name of one of William the Conqueror's knights, granted large tracts of England when William parcelled England out to his supporters.Lots of villages have Beauchamp as part of their name as does Beauchamp Place in London. In no case is it prounced as it might be in modern French but as 'bee-chum' or 'bee-cham'. It looks as though we were pronouncing it the 'wrong' way a very long time ago; who knows, perhaps the old boy himself did ?

quote:

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Originally posted by FredPuli:
Beauchamp as part of their name as does Beauchamp Place in London. In no case is it prounced as it might be in modern French but as 'bee-chum' or 'bee-cham'.

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Could it be possible that the Beecham surname derives from this?
Another pronuciation variation is in the similar Beaumont surname I knew somebody with that name and they said Bee-U-mont emphasis on the U

Is Beecham from Beauchamp , Bedstor ? HL Mencken in The American Language [1921] so wrote in the chapter on American surnames. He cites specialist works throughout the piece. Beecham belongs with Seymour (Saint Maure) as an anglicised Norman French surname , according to him.
The only alternative that springs to mind is that there was a 'ham' with a beech wood whence the first Beecham had come (nobody ever bears the name of the place their ancestor first settled and raised his descendants, only the name of the place by which he was identified as a 'foreigner' locally when he first arrived there ). As a) there seems to be nowhere so spelled in the UK but plenty including Beauchamp b) it could even be that many Beechams had come from a place with the affix Beauchamp in its name and so got called 'bee-cham' on arriving elsewhere c) clerks habitually recorded names as they heard them, not as originally spelled, and the bearer concerned was not literate enough to correct them, the first reasoning seems compelling .