I'm not a French speaker, I don't live in France, but I have been to Alsace. I pronounce it the same way as Cocofromdijon does - Alzass. That is how the French people I have talk to pronounce it too.

Thank you all so much! We speak tiny bits of all sorts of European languages - Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German etc and all it does is confuse us when it comes to pronouncation! We even forget our native English on occasion which is truly embarrassing.

Looking forward to visiting Alsace!

Kay

KayF I know that feeling -forgetting your native English that is! Speaking Dutch most of the time, thinking Dutch, even dreaming Dutch means sometimes I can't find the word I need when speaking English. Not a problem with husband and kids when I just use the Dutch word but definitely a problem with the rest of the family and strangers.
Have a great time in Alsace!

Pretty early in the morning here, and I've already learned my new thing for the day. With a z, who knew?

The early bird gets the worm ;-) (I've just learnt this one, I hope it is not out of context!)

The Swiss (and Germans) pronounce it El Sauce. I'm sure the French pronounce it differently.

Robes....in the dorf I lived in I think Hoch Deutsch was something the bauern-leute only saw and heard on the fernsehen!!...LOL It was just outside of Zweibrucken, Oberauerbach.

tdudette, So long as it is "al sass" and not "als .." because that would be funny.

Well, Shoes, if it were, it would be closer to the 'z' sound. N'est-ce pas?

It's not "al" anyway. There is no letter in the "english alphabet" that would fit.

kay,

It's a good question. While in Alsace - or points beyond for that mattter - I've always said "Al-sas."

<i>It's not &quot;al&quot; anyway. There is no letter in the &quot;english alphabet&quot; that would fit.</i>

Ah! Maybe there's a <i>phoneme</i> that would.

Now, please do post the correct phonemes, both in French and German. Thanks!

Phonetic spellings in language phonemes are not reliable, but IPA notation is: <b>alzas</b>

Found it for German &quot;ə&quot;

Not really, you're right, it's unreliable....

If you have a pal named Al, you would say (approximately) the south end of your northbound friend.

Tdudette,

I haven't a clue of what <i>N'est-ce pas </i> means, Pal, although I didn't want to let it <i>pass</i> just in case!! Is it french for What up or That's that?! Hope so.

&quot;Is it not so?&quot; would be close.

It is a way to transform an affirmation into a question. You expect the answer to be &quot;yes&quot;.

Il fait beau aujourd'hui, n'est-ce-pas?
It is nice today, isn't it?

In France we definitely say &quot;Alzass&quot;.