Products & Services
Awe-v or oh-v-ee?
By JBC on 24 September 2009
GLOBAL – Ever since it was first announced I’ve had something of a curious fascination with the way the word Ovi is pronounced. I’m sure I’m not alone, either. Mike did a video of it last year, interviewing a bunch of folks and asking them to pronounce Ovi (well, me and his family). There seems to be a consensus there that it’s drawn out, rather than a harsh drop. So, more “oh-v-ee” than “awe-v”.
Last night though, I clocked the first Ovi Store TV advert in the UK. I’m not sure how long it’s been running but I was genuinely surprised and HUGELY impressed. It was clear, showed definite benefits for users and firmly plants the Ovi Store seed in viewers’ minds. All great save for one thing. The way they pronounced Ovi. It was the harsher, more sudden version, rather than the softer, more drawn out one.
Now, interestingly, the only version of the ad I could find online was the German one (see video below), where they use the softer pronounciation. Also, for my own sanity, I wanted to check how Nokia CEO OPK says it, so I even re-watched his Nokia World 09 Keynote to check. Yep, it’s oh-vee or him too.
So, what is it where you are? Awe-v or oh-vee? (Let us know which country you’re in too).
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September 24th, 2009 at 11:46 am
oh-vee
india
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September 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I’m in the U.S., and for me it’s the softer oh-vee, as it should be for us English-speakers.
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September 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
It’s oh-vee for me in the UK. Seen the advert a day or two ago I think. Nokia do still frustrate me thought with regard to their apparently laid back marketing ethos.
Nokia make better product than Apple, but do not appear to spend as much on advertising. In my opinion, if Nokia spent more on advertising the iPhone would not be as big as it is.
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September 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
oh-vee!
I’m from Singapore
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
It’s just “ovi” and that it. I have never understand why people write thing differently than what they are pronounced.
From my (Finnish person) point of view oh-vee isn’t even remotely close to ovi. There’s no ‘h’ or ‘e’ in that word. Just ‘o’, ‘v’ and ‘i’.
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I have seen this spot some days ago in the TV (Germany) and wondered if it is an Apple spot or whether it is from Nokia!? The next spot was the latest by Apple for the iPhone, which was very similar to this one
Here in Germany we say “oh-vee” (American English), I think “Awe-v” is more British English
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Oh-vee! (UK)
Can we get some clarity on Nokia vs. No-kia please?
At a Symbian event a couple of years ago (UK), I double-checked and a Fin said Nokia, rather than the US No-kia, and yet, all American Nokia employees seem to work for No-kia.
Sorry, off topic, bee in bonneet…
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Tupe Reply:
September 25th, 2009 at 11:48 am
It’s “Nokia”. Like Ovi is “Ovi”. IPA letters for those two words: nokiɑ and ovi. See, there’s no gaps old anything like that. You pronounce the word the same way you write it.
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Ovi is the Finnish word for “gate” or “portal”. It’s pronounced like the English word “of” followed by the sound “ee”.
Nokia is a place in Finland, pronounced like the English word “knock” and then the sounds “ee” and “ah”.
Ovi = Of-ee
Nokia = Knock-ee-ah
Problem solved. Please tell the rest of the world.
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
ovi
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September 24th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Oh-Vee in Malaysia.
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September 24th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
oh-vee
France
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September 24th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
It’s annoying how something is pronounced one way originally and gets butchered in other languages. In English I pronounce it oh-vee, but in Romanian I pronounce it ovi.
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September 24th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Definitively “ovi”, with the short “o” rhyming with that in “potty”, for example. Because it’s a Finnish word, meaning ‘door’ (i.e. a portal). ‘ohhh-vi’ just isn’t a word in any language.
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Tupe Reply:
September 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Yeah, all these oh-vees and no-kias just sound completely wrong for Finns.
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Barnie Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Coming from latin “ovum” we have :-
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ovi
e.g. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oviferous
Dictionary says “oh” (though I’m sure same native English speakers would pronounce that as in “of” too. The joys of non-phonetic spelling! ).
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September 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Its just ovi in Greek too, since we usually pronounce words by substituting the English letters with the “equivalent” Greek ones(ΟΒΗ).
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September 24th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I thought it was pronounce ov-ee lol
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September 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
for sexy chicks its called ooohhh-vvvveeeiii! c”,
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September 24th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I call it “o-vee” not “oh-vee”.
Currently in US, Indian origin, but my American friends with American ascent also say the same thing as above “o-vee”
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September 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
O-vee (in Greek: Όβι) with the accent on “o”.
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September 25th, 2009 at 3:21 am
We, who speak spanish don’t have any problem with the pronunciation, it’s just ovi; but those who speak english I think can try pronouncing it like: Obi (Wan Kenobi)
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September 25th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
oh v è معقوله!
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September 26th, 2009 at 6:21 am
O.V.I.!Depending on the race you have. =p
It’s definitely more on oh-vee than awe-v…
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September 28th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Well it’s clearly ‘ovi’ (as in ovulate or opposite) with each syllable equally weighted, rather than either ‘oe-vi’ (as in open), or ‘awe-vi’ (as in who knows ??).
I can’t think of any word starting with the letter ‘o’ where the ‘o’ is pronounced ‘awe’. Well perhaps in Norwegian, but we’re talking about English aren’t we ?
Furthermore how could Nokia possibly be construed as Noe-kia ?
It’s a short ‘o’ sound and the emphasis is on the first syllable.
Tsk… what a lot of fuss about a very small word. But obviously good for the marketing process.
(UK).
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October 1st, 2009 at 4:57 am
i’m from Malaysia, i’ve two way to say it :
OH-VEE and OH-Y
haha (^_^)
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October 6th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Just as a thought from an English perspective i havent seen anyone mention that the most common English word that you would pronounce in anyway the same would be ‘over’ just as you have the same ‘ov’ start.. how do you pronounce that? I think that should give us our English speaking answer
voting oh-vee!!
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October 6th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
OVI in Basque and Spanish
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November 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
in Bangladesh OVI is like a male person’s name!
and interestingly it’s my younger brother’s name!
so i have no prob to pronounce it like O-v-ee
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November 16th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
When I first saw it I knew it’s pronunciation was going to be a problem in English, pretty bad choice of name for that reason in my opinion
That fact that this seems to have been enforced by Nokia media releases in different countries really doesn’t help…
So in English I’m supposed to pronounce it the Finish way (even though that seems un-intuitive to me), but Germans aren’t?
What do we call it when I’m talking to a German? (or Germans to Fins, etc.).
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