Not the way Will Shortz pronounced it on NPR’s Sunday Puzzle this morning (at the 2:54 mark). Shortz said
/ˌla-pəs-la-ˈzü-lē/.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives five pronunciations, two from British English, three from the States. Merriam-Webster offers two:
/ˌla-pəs-ˈla-zə-lē/Neither of those appears in the OED. In all seven forms, it’s the first syllable of lazuli that’s stressed, not the second. In none does the second syllable sound as /zü/ (zoo).
/ˌla-pəs-ˈla-zhə-lē/
Me, I’ve always said /ˌla-pəs-ˈla-zə-lē/. And how did I know Will Shortz was wrong? Because I absorbed a correct pronunciation as an undergrad reading William Butler Yeats’s “Lapis Lazuli,” a poem that seemed to be of great enormous personal significance to my beloved professor Jim Doyle.
“All men have aimed at, found and lost”: I think that line in particular spoke to Jim.
comments: 4
I learned it from my Egyptologist history professor in college, Gerald Kadish.
Cool. Some of Egyptian amulets I’ve posted photos of for Valentine’s Day are made of lapis lazuli.
Over here in the UK (originally the south but now the north) I've always said la-piss laz-you-lie with stress on the first syllable of each word and all vowels pronounced as vowels rather than shewas. And the z closing the first syllable rather than opening the second. Not that it's a terrifically common term anywhere these days, I suspect, though my acquaintance includes some Egyptological work as well :)
Yep, that’s pretty much one of the British English forms in the OED: /lap-iss LAZ-yuh-ligh/. That version differs slightly from yours in the fourth syllable. It’s funny but maybe fitting that something not especially common has so many pronunciations.
The other British English form in the OED: /lap-iss LAZ-yuh-lee/.
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