I pronounce this word as "dood" [du:d], even though I don't have yod dropping in "dew/due" [dju:], "dual" [dju@5] etc. It's makes sense to me as the word originated in America, and so it makes sense for it to have an American pronunciation. However, I've seen dictionaries list [dju:d] as an alternative. Does anyone ever actually say it that way?
Pronunciation of "dude".
When used in the surfer/skater sense of the word (eg. Dude!) no.
When used to refer to other, legitimate 'Dudage', such as Dude ranch, etc. I have heard it pronounced as "dju:d"
When used to refer to other, legitimate 'Dudage', such as Dude ranch, etc. I have heard it pronounced as "dju:d"
I myself think informal spellings such as "dewd" for "dude" do not really indicate [ˈdjuːd] but rather simple vowel fronting as [ˈdʉːd] or, more extremely, as [ˈdyːd]. I really doubt that there is anyone who natively pronounces "dude" with something like [ˈdjuːd], and those who do are likely speakers of non-North American dialects who have adopted spelling pronunciations of "dude".
I agree, spellings like ''dewd'' for ''dude'' and ''kewl'' for ''cool'' indicate the vowel fronting.
The Cambridge Online Dictionary gives only ["du:d] for British English, and the Longman Online Dictionary gives only ["dju:d].
The matter here, of course, is that "dude" is practically a loanword in English English...
Like many of the Americans of my generation, rather than /dud/ I pronounce the vowel more fronted (or centralized, I can't really tell which) but it is definitely not /dud/.
I myself pronounce "dude" as [ˈdʲʉ̯uːd̥], but I do not have general fronting of /u/ but only allophonic diphthongization as a rising central or front-to-back diphthong after coronals (which affects all mid and high back vowels in my dialect). Likewise, my [dʲ] reflects not /dj/ but rather allophonic palatalization of coronals.