That French gn sound is like the kv combo in Yiddish - it's almost impossible to write the phonetics for a non-"native" speaker, and even harder for us/them to say!<BR><BR>Dordogne - door duhn(with a sound a little like don we know our gay apparel) yuh. Now, start to say yuh but drop the uh - now you get the idea of that swallowed sound the French are so rightly famous for (if you want a real giggle, say the French word for tire "pneu" - yup, they say the "p").

Maybe I am missing what's funny, marna - - the Germans pronounce the "k" in Knabe - - isn't it more like funny that we do NOT pronounce the first letter in gnome, knife, psyche and whoever?<BR><BR>For me the funniest vowel-pronunciation combo is in Greek - - mu, followed by pi<BR><BR>I still remember vividly, as a 15 year old boy seeing the posters in Athens for the movie "MPARMPARELLA"!<BR><BR>note: this is a transliteration<BR><BR>M = mu<BR>P = pi<BR>A = alpha<BR>R = rho<BR><BR>you get the idea...<BR>

Sue, you're absolutely right about "anglais." Shouldn't post while I'm on the phone at work! Of course, if you want to use it with a feminine noun, then you'd pronounce the "se," but this is probably more than the original poster needed/wanted to know.<BR><BR>And whoever suggested Zhon compwahn pah - not really very close. You have to make the French "r" sound very clear in the word "comprends," and it doesn't sound anything like a "w." <BR><BR>

I thought about it and found an easy way to figure out the pronunciation of Dordogne. Take the word "onion" and say the first vowel with a D in front of it and an R (preferably uvular) behind it. That's the first syllable of Dordogne. Repeat the process for the second syllable, but instead of adding the R, continue with the nio sound of "onion" but stop before you ever say o.

You call this an easy way to describe the "gne" sound in Dordogne?<BR><BR>I think that the "lasagna" explanation was much more to the point.<BR>

MP together in Greek form the letter &quot;b.&quot; You don't pronounce the mu or the pi separately. Both together make &quot;b.&quot; I'm surprised a Greek didn't explain that to you.

Another thing Rex: In Old and Middle English, the 'k' in 'knife' for example was pronounced. Over time, it was not pronounced even if the spelling did not change. It proves linguistically English is, for all intents and purposes, a Germanic language with Latin and Greek words being added because of the Norman invasion culminating at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the subsequent founding of the House of Normandy dynasty. Additionally, the accents in the French language represent consonants that were dropped linguistically from the spoken language. If you add the proper consonant in question, the French words are very similar to their Italian counterparts which proves French and Italian are much more similar than French and Spanish.

Don't bother too much with translations - I was washing my hands outside the toilet in a restaurant when an American lady said to me &quot; You fini pee pee wee?&quot; I understood what she was saying without any trouble

Liz: That was SOOOOO FUNNY!!!! I'm sure you replied &quot;Oui oui oui. J'ai fini!&quot; Hysterical.<BR>

Door-done-ye!!! And with a French &quot;r&quot;

The ending of Dordogne is phonetically written as nj. Most French don´t say Dordogne. They say P&eacute;rigord.

transliteration is not THAT hard<BR>1. door-dawn-yuh<BR>it is not DOAN in the second syllable as many have said.<BR>2. anglaise is probably not what you what (that is what you would use if you were female to say &quot;i am english&quot;.. as others have mentioned.<BR>you want &quot;anglais&quot; (the language<BR>if you say &quot;on-glay&quot; your meaning will be gotten across. of course, if you say &quot;english,&quot; it will probably be gotten across too. though i'm not sure barking the word &quot;english&quot; or &quot;anglais is the best way to get help from the supposedly snotty parisians (anyone.. i've heard this time and again.. is it true?)<BR>3. you want &quot;je ne comprend pas&quot;<BR>zuh nuh com-prawn pah<BR>or something like that.<BR>don't pronounce the n in the &quot;prawn&quot;

Well, Silvana, for all your bluster, you didn't do much better than anyone else at transliteration, and your transliteration of je ne comprend pas was close to deplorable.<BR><BR>DAWN doesn't come very close to the sound of dogne in Dordogne, either.<BR><BR>Nice try, though.

Over the centuries, the Dordogne river has been known as Duranius, Doronia, Dornonia, Dordonia, Dordoigna and Dordoigne, which explains the &quot;nj&quot; sound.<BR>Similar to K&ouml;ln, aka Colonia and Cologne, or Bolonia and Bologna.<BR>How the latter evolved into &quot;baloney&quot; is another story.

Isn't the &quot;Dogne&quot; in Dorgone almost like bologna