What is the correct pronunciation of 'Ubuntu'?

Here's Nelson Mandela ... Short clip : The Meaning of Ubuntu .

Actually, you get the interviewer pronouncing Ubuntu twice, and you'll hear Mandela pronounce Ubuntu near the end of the clip.

To attempt a quick summary, the bun is close to Boone in Daniel Boone or \bün\ ;

and tu is close to too, or \tü\ . The initial u matches this sound.

ou.boon.too = ubuntu

In most languages from southern Africa, ubuntu = humanity to others, bantu = people.

In some languages the "b" is pronunced as a "w", for instance my name "Buyongo" is pronunced "Wuyongo". A westerner will make the mistake of saying buy.on.go, which is incorrect. Another example is Busisiwe which is said Wusisiwe even though it has the letter B.

So if you used a genuine southern African accent to pronunce it, it would sound more like ou.woon.tu, but for simplicity sake lets just say ou.boon.too. It's the popular way anyhow. :)

How To Pronounce Ubuntu - YouTube

pronunciationbook

Published on 11 Sep 2010

This video shows you how to say Ubuntu. Learn the correct American English pronunciation of the Linux distribution.