How to pronounce Raku

Raku is most commonly pronounced "RAH koo" (/ˈrɑː.kuː/). This is the widely-used reading among engineers, though edge cases exist.

The language formerly known as Perl 6, renamed Raku in Oct 2019 with Larry Wall's blessing for the name. Community pronunciation is RAH-koo — first syllable 'rah' as in cheering 'rah-rah', second 'koo' as in 'cuckoo', stress on RAH. The name honors the Rakudo compiler, a contraction of Japanese Rakuda-dō ('Way of the Camel'), and evokes 楽 raku ('comfort/enjoyment'). English speakers frequently flatten it to RAK-oo (rhyming with 'rack you'), the common Anglicization. Do NOT read it as 'rake-oo'. Note: the cited Hackster.io article covers the rename and etymology but does not itself document the pronunciation.

Alternate readings you might hear:

• "RAK oo" /ˈræk.uː/

Source: Hackster.io — Perl 6 renamed to Raku (2019)

Pronouncing project and product names correctly avoids the small but persistent friction of being gently corrected during standups, conference Q&As, and team calls. Hearing the word a few times locks in the right reading better than reading IPA ever will. Pronounce is a community-maintained dictionary — every entry tagged with a confidence level and (where possible) a citable source.