proper nouns - Pronunciation of "Azure" in "Microsoft Azure"


This is not a techie query. I am just unclear on how to pronounce the word "Azure" which is the brand name for Microsoft's cloud computing service.



Answer



Azure is also an ordinary English word, pronounced the same way (or rather, ways) as the Microsoft program software offering.


The two main pronunciations differ in how they say the 'z': in US English, it almost always becomes a zh /ʒ/, like the s in measure, while in the UK, it can be either a zh /ʒ/, same as in the US, or a straight z /z/. There's also disagreement about which syllable gets the stress: in the US, it goes on the first syllable: AZH-uhr /ˈæʒər/, while in the UK, it's more likely to go on the second syllable: az-YOOR /azˈj(ʊ)ə/.


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