Men on camels two by two

[GoodTaste]

How do you pronounce "two by two" in this context? Is it pronounced /tuː bai tuː/?

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Slowly across the desert sand,
Trekked a lonely caravan.
Men on camels two by two,
Destination Timbuktu.

Source: [h=2]Linguistic humor, Timbuktu[/h]

 

[teechar]

What makes you think it's pronounced differently?

 

[GoodTaste]

What makes you think it's pronounced differently?

I speak "People sitting on chairs two by two" to Siri and she shows "People sitting on chairs 2x2," which Is correct.

But when I read "People sitting on camels two by two" to her, she shows "People sitting on camels toe by two." Hence the thread.

 

[teechar]

I [STRIKE]speak[/STRIKE] say "People sitting on chairs two by two" to Siri and she shows "People sitting on chairs 2x2," which Is correct.
But when I read "People sitting on camels two by two" to her, she shows "People sitting on camels toe by two." Hence the thread.

I'm not sure how much value I'd put on a voice-recognition software program! Perhaps its algorithm is guessing that "toe" makes more sense with "camel" than "two".

 

[emsr2d2]

"two by two" should sound exactly as it's written.

There is one phrase in which the pronunciation would differ (but with a different second number). A particular size of piece of wood is called a "two by four". When spoken aloud, it sounds like "two b'four". The "y" doesn't feature at all. (Perhaps someone who can do phonetic symbols could transcribe that for me!)