Ranching and beef experts and foodies: How do you pronounce “wagyu”? The word has some interesting regional differences in how it’s said, but according to the game show Jeopardy!, there is a right way … and a wrong way. After a contestant sounded it out like way-gu and was deemed incorrect by the game show’s host, a firestorm erupted on social media.
The clue that led to wagyu was: “The name of this cattle breed prized for its marbled beef literally means ‘Japanese Cow.’”
After contestant Meredith Miller’s response, host Ken Jennings said, “So close. You didn’t have a ‘y.’ Wagyu.”
Marked wrong, her response on the $1,600 answer sent her down to third place, which is where she finished the game last week.
The way Jennings handled Miller’s response that aired on July 18 has led many people to call the show “inconsistent” when it comes to handling contestant pronunciations, especially when regional dialects can have a significant influence. Just think of the whole toe-may-toe/toe-mah-toe discussion (or even tuh-mater) to understand how there could be multiple right answers based on geography, culture, and upbringing.
There are many times when Jeopardy! contestants are given chances to re-say a word for Jennings and the judges to confirm that it was said correctly — or at least that the logic was correct.
One former contestant explained in a comment on Reddit, “In the morning rules briefing, they say something like if you make a good faith effort to pronounce it as it looks like it would sound from how it reads, you should be OK.”
So, how far off was she?
The official dictionary pronunciation of wagyu is: waa·gyoo. So, technically speaking, Miller moved the “y” to the wrong place in the word. But let’s not tell that to past contestants who have gotten away with words like “sher-bert” and “lar-nyx.”
A Reddit thread launched a couple of days ago on the topic has gotten fevered.
“Wagyu was a tough one,” a Reddit user said. “As a barbecue hobbyist, I hear the word a lot, and almost everyone falls into either the ‘wagoo’ or ‘way-goo’ trap. It’s one of those words that seems to have developed a few different regional pronunciation variations, and if you live in a certain area, the only way you might ever hear it is the “wrong” way.
“I’ve always been under the impression that the rule of thumb is that ‘an answer is acceptable provided that it can be reasonably spelled as the correct response.’ So “way-gyoo” would be acceptable, as someone who looks at ‘wagyu’ and has never heard it before could reasonably pronounce it with a long ‘a.’ But ‘way-goo’ sounds like it’s expressly omitting the y after the g, which would be a ‘misspelled response,’” one user said.
Another defender of Miller’s pronunciation said, “The regional pronunciations like sherbet do bother me when they’re called out. I’ve always wondered what they would do if a contestant has a speech impediment if they would be ruled wrong for pronunciation. I had rhotacism as a child, and occasionally, my R’s can still come out as W’s.”
Perhaps most notable is that Miller herself, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., responded to the thread on Reddit, which now has dozens of comments:
“I’ve only ever heard it pronounced the way I said it, born and raised in the DC area,” she said. “Each of us that day had a call: the answer just after that one also got dinged on the pronunciation, Her-ford vs. Her-e-ford. There was also a ‘St. Louis Arch’ vs ‘Gateway Arch’ acceptance. I don’t think any of it changed the outcome, but interesting to see where those landed.”
She followed that up a few comments later with: “Spelling it, knew it was ‘wagyu’, always heard it pronounced ‘way-goo’. Obviously, now I know how to pronounce it and will do so moving forward 😂”
It seems like a close call, but was it too close? With how far people today are removed from the farming and ranching sector, it’s probably no surprise that things will get mispronounced. We’d like to see some contestants take a stab at Boehringer Ingelheim next!
So however you pronounce “wagyu,” this breed is gaining popularity in the United States. It was first introduced to the U.S. in 1976, and today boasts about 40,000 American head, crosses included. Considered a delicacy in Japan, where it fetches as much as $150 per pound, American producers like crossing the Wagyu with Angus and Holstein.