Sat 17 May 2008
How do you pronounce Submariner?
Posted by The Breitling Source under General Posts , Rolex[11] Comments
After having a conversation over the phone today with a fellow about watches, I noticed he pronounced the word “Submariner” as in Rolex Submariner as sub MAH ren ner. Like the baseball team the Seattle Mariners but with Sub in front. I pronouce it Sub mah REEN ner like the word Submarine with an R on the end.
I decided I would check it out and find out what the proper way of saying it is. I thought it would have been easier. From gathering the information all over the net, I have found that the old school sailors that would be in the submarines, would use my pronunciation, Sub mah REEN ner. However, there are a lot of British folks that swear that sub MAH ren ner is the way its pronouced.
Reading several sources tells me that the people that actually work as Submariners elected to use the pronunciation Sub mah REEN ner at some point in time and that is what they use. Dictionary tells me that both pronunciations are acceptable.
So next time you walk into a Rolex store and use one of the pronunciations, and the Rolex salesperson corrects you not-so-discreetly by intentionally using the other pronunciation, you can throw this in his face 😀
May 18th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I regularly hear both, but use ‘sub MAH ren ner’ myself. 😉
May 19th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I broke down one day and bought a Sub. I also pronounced it the way Speedmaster does. It’s funny though most owners just called them Subs!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
This is quite true.. I usually call it a Rolex Sub too.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:52 am
I’m British so it’s “sub MAH ren ner” all the way for me too.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
for me. I also refer to my friends who worked on underwater electric boats this way too.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
“sub MAH ren ner” is what I wrote, but it parsed the brackets as tags…
June 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
as a submariner myself, it’s sub-ma-REEN-er…as in, one dives is a dive-r, one who drives is a drive-r, one who goes to sea on submarines is a submarine-r
A generic term for people who work on the sea is “mariner”. Consider that to refer to someone as a subMAHriner is to imply that they are a sub-mariner, or one who is somehow a mariner of lesser ability when the simple fact is that those who work below the sea are far superior to those who work above it.
If you’re not a submarine, you’re a target for a submarine.
January 14th, 2013 at 8:46 am
I was a sub-Mah-ren-ner on the USS honolulu before it got decom-ed in Washington. I and every other submariner on the boat pronounced it sub-Mah-ren-ner. You sound like a moron saying sub ma ree ner. It’s sub because you’re below the water not below in intelligence.
January 14th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Touchy touchy!
February 7th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
I sailed as a merchant seaman with an old navy Captain. He was both a submarine officer who wore the dolphins and also a deck officer or as they say in the Navy a surface warfare (line) officer. He was adamant that it was pronounced sub mah reen’er for the very reason Bill says it was the other way round. To say sub mar’ in er suggests you are below what? I would say the surface sailors mariners. No submariner wants to cop to that. To say, instead, that you are a sub- ma- reen’ er suggests quite naturally that you operate a submarine (pronounced sub-ma-reen’) as a drummer operates (or plays) the drums and a batter operates (or hits with) a bat.
February 7th, 2014 at 5:06 pm
Interesting to read all the different viewpoints.. thanks for the post.