Duquesne pronounciation?
Apr 3rd, 2006, 10:50 AM
#7
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http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/index.html
Usually I trust this website for ordinary words but Alain the French voice didn't pronounce it properly (surely not in his repertory)
If you write duqueine or duquêne you'll hear it like it should be said.
Usually I trust this website for ordinary words but Alain the French voice didn't pronounce it properly (surely not in his repertory)
If you write duqueine or duquêne you'll hear it like it should be said.
Apr 3rd, 2006, 11:38 AM
#8
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We stayed at Hotel Muguet last summer and asked the owner how to say Muguet. We were pronouncing it Mew jay. She gave us about a 10 minute lesson piercing her lips and saying MOOOooo gay. We would repeat (obviously wrong) and she would again say no, no MOOOOOO Gay. It is some type of flower.
Apr 3rd, 2006, 11:54 AM
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This is bordering on the never-ending on whether there are different pronunciations for PEN and PIN, ken and kin, etc.
I would write it as Dyu-KEHN, though neither transliteration really captures it.
If you have the kind of "country" (Southern?) accent that results in pronouncing "anywhere" as "InnyWare", then you might as well say DooKANE as shooting for DyuKEHN and ending up with "Dook-KINN".
Oh... and yes... Eiffel => "Eff-ELL"
Best wishes,
Rex
I would write it as Dyu-KEHN, though neither transliteration really captures it.
If you have the kind of "country" (Southern?) accent that results in pronouncing "anywhere" as "InnyWare", then you might as well say DooKANE as shooting for DyuKEHN and ending up with "Dook-KINN".
Oh... and yes... Eiffel => "Eff-ELL"
Best wishes,
Rex
Apr 3rd, 2006, 03:09 PM
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Yes, ira... Georgia has its own curiously Bostonian variation on Nashville/Texas/Kentucky/Mississippi/hillbilly/"suthrin" speech, with that "heah" and "theyah".
Reminds me of a Boston expression variation I heard about a year ago, of "you can't get there from here"...
...my wife and I were told, with reference to trying to reach a hotel near Boston Logan airport (from Cambridge) - - "well, if I was going theyah, I wouldn't stott heah"...
Reminds me of a Boston expression variation I heard about a year ago, of "you can't get there from here"...
...my wife and I were told, with reference to trying to reach a hotel near Boston Logan airport (from Cambridge) - - "well, if I was going theyah, I wouldn't stott heah"...
Apr 3rd, 2006, 07:50 PM
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Actually there are different pronunciations for ken and kin, pen and pin, etc., in all standard versions of English. The differences are phonemic and omnipresent, and so they are preserved in virtually all pronunciations, even when the pronunciations of the phonemes involved vary.
You can pronounce it “doo-ken” and the locals should be able to understand it. “Dyoo-ken” should be avoided. If you can pronounce “ee” with your lips rounded (very easy to do, but not a sound that's used in English) for the first vowel, that's even better.
You can pronounce it “doo-ken” and the locals should be able to understand it. “Dyoo-ken” should be avoided. If you can pronounce “ee” with your lips rounded (very easy to do, but not a sound that's used in English) for the first vowel, that's even better.
Apr 4th, 2006, 04:45 AM
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The way I was taught to say the "u" in "du" (French) or "ü" (German) was to say "eee" and then push your lips forward as if to give a maiden aunt a peck on the cheek. Or if you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog, then you've probably already got it.
Apr 4th, 2006, 05:00 AM
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Write the name down on a piece of paper; hand it to the taxi driver or to whomever.
Feel good about yourself.
When you arrive at the hotel, ask them how THEY pronounce it.
They'll be delighted you took the time to try to learn it rather than going in and looking like some sort of clown with your lips contorted.
Feel good about yourself.
When you arrive at the hotel, ask them how THEY pronounce it.
They'll be delighted you took the time to try to learn it rather than going in and looking like some sort of clown with your lips contorted.
Apr 4th, 2006, 10:38 AM
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Be wary of asking just any local for advice on French. Many of them don't know much more about French than the average American knows about English (that is to say, they hardly know anything at all). Their advice can be egregiously off the mark.
“Contorting” your lips is normal in French, which has six rounded vowels, half of them fronted. English has four rounded vowels, and all of them are back vowels (which is why English speakers find the front rounded vowels of French counterintuitive).
“Contorting” your lips is normal in French, which has six rounded vowels, half of them fronted. English has four rounded vowels, and all of them are back vowels (which is why English speakers find the front rounded vowels of French counterintuitive).
