Talk:Willys/Archives/2018

Latest comment: 5 years ago by Dicklyon in topic Pronunciation

Pronunciation

I've heard many people pronounce it will-eez—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.188.172.165 (talk) {{{2}}}

The correct pronunciation of Mr. John Willys' name is WILL-iss. Will-eez came into use decades later. --Sable232 00:07, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
That's what I've read - "Willis". -Will Beback 06:14, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Read where? There needs to be a cite provided in the article.139.48.25.61 (talk) 21:10, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
There isn't any citation in the article, yet someone took it upon themselves to denounce the will-eez pronunciation. I've heard it pronounced both ways - Dslayer202 (talk) 13:21, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
Right. In fact, in my 45 years' association with veteran/vintage cars (admittedly in Australia), I had never heard of the "Will-us" pronunciation until I spotted it in this article! Mind you, Aussies have been known to enshrine wrong pronunciations like "Pyoojoe" (Peugeot). Cheers Bjenks (talk) 00:44, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Strange, all this arguing from positions of ignorance. It took me precisely 12.7 seconds to find a Web site owned by a descendant of a man whose father worked for Willys Overland Motors in the 1940s and 1950s, who states matter-of-factly that "Will-is not Will-eze ... Will-eze is the language spoken by Will-is enthusiasts". So there. See http://mightymo.org/why_willys.htmlQuicksilverT @ 00:35, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

This article is still misleading readers as to the correct pronunciation of the name, implying that one form is preferred over the other, when in fact one is correct and the other is incorrect. The problem presumably stems from the underlying assumption the name is a possessive form (Willy's) instead of simply being a variant spelling of Willis. The article should not imply that pronouncing the name as something like "Will-eze" is acceptable. __209.179.54.133 (talk) 22:57, 19 June 2016 (UTC)
It shouldn't be about what's "preferred", but we should acknowledge that how Mr. Willys pronounced it is not how most people pronounce it. Dicklyon (talk) 02:32, 13 October 2018 (UTC)