I say Bow-finger, my friend insists that it is Bow-fon-jay.

It is an Alsatian (sp) brasserie, so I don't think that it would have a French name. We've both eaten there, separately, numerous times over the years, so there was never any reason for either of us to clarify it.

She speaks fluent French, I don't. Please help us settle this friendl 'argument'.

Nina

It is pronounced like a French name, not a German name.
If you know how to pronounce these 3 French words, you just string them together:
beau - fin - jet

I stand corrected. I speak enough French so that I can put them together.

A few years back we met a lovely local couple in a restaurant. and they offered us a ride home after dinner. We were staying on r. des Tournelles. We told them that it was around the corner from Bow-fon-jay (shortly after my friend had corrected my pronunciation). They had no idea what we were talking about, which was very surprising to us as they were from Paris.

We directed them, and as we passed the restaurant, we pointed it out saying 'Bow-fon-jay". Madame said, 'oh no, that is Bow-finger'.

Nina

As I was typing about the lovely local couple who offered us a ride home after dinner, I saw the faces of Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren in The Comfort of Strangers. Scary ... next time we'll take the Metro ;-)

Nina

With all due respect to Keouac, I think for an Anglophone attempting it, would be more like BOW-FAN-JAY.

Makes since because the pronunciation of "fin" does not rhyme with "inn" but Kerouac does say if you KNOW how to pronounce the word "fin."

Nina...we have a President who "speaks fluent English" so fluency means nothing in terms of being correct!

Hi Nina,

Enter "Bofinger" at
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/index.html

Ira...LOVE the voice demo. Thanks for the link!

Thanks Ira, I am in love with Alain. Now I will have to start writing fasters while trying to spell phonectically in French.

You should make a separate post for all to see (or maybe we shud just keep it a secret right here).

Thanks,

Nina

The fin is pronounced like fan (without the n...like thru the nose.

the Jay is pronounced with a soft J

I guess that I already spell phonetically in English .. shud.
Fasters is just a faster form of fast.

What a fun, relaxed day I'm having ...

Nina

Forgot......you won't make an Alsacian very happy if you make any references to the German sounding name. They are very concerned about this misrepresentation and if they sense any doubts they will let you know that they are French.

Bigal, of course you are right - my error.

About 25 years ago I was waiting for my mother in a hospital waiting room, while she was having a broken wrist x-rayed.

I was alone in the small enclosed room, when another woman came in and sat down. We exchanged greetings, and got into a conversation. She spoke with a French accent, so asked I asked her where she was from - she said Alsace.

A few minutes another lady came in and when she spoke, she too had a French accident. Busy body me, told her that the other woman was French also. I asked where she was from - Alsace also. I forget the name of their towns.

Both women appeared to be in their 60's. They started talking, and within minutes it became apparent that one of them had been in the Resistance and the other, well the other, was on the other side.

The Resistance woman accused the other woman of forsaking the French language, in favor of German, etc..and spoke of her Resistance activities to keep the area French.

The woman on 'the other side', actually spit on her, telling her that every time the Resistance did something to interfer with the occupation, the Germans would take it out on the rest of them.

It escalated quickly and the women were yelling at each other. My mother had finished with her x-rays and came into the room for me to take her home. She took one look at the tense scene and asked me what was going on.

I grabbed her by her good arm, whisked her out as quickly as I could, telling her that I had just started WW III.

So much for polite conversation ;-)

Nina

Correction ....I should have worded that differently. Actually, I don't know if the woman was really 'on the other side'. I'm sure that she wouldn't have admitted it if she was.

From what she said. and her open hatred of the Resistance, she admittedly followed the rules of the occupation, and made no waves.

Nina

The correct pronunciation is /bofɛ̃ʒe/, which sounds roughly like &ldquo;bow-fan-jay,&rdquo; where <i>bow</i> rhymes with <i>row</i> and the &lsquo;j&rsquo; in <i>jay</i> is soft, as it is in <i>measure</i>.

Bofinger......He's the man. The man with the Midas touch.......

J. Bond

LOL. Alain speaks way too fast for me! Juliette did a much better job. Great site, Ira.

Love the voice site, but it sounds like Bo-fan-jhee.

Ira - great site!