Segment 38 – Guide To Pronunciation: How Do You Say Moët?
A few weeks ago, one lovely Sunday afternoon, we were at a friend’s house having lunch. We’d all just gotten back from summer break, so we were quite happy to see each other, catch up and recount our holiday.
We pulled out some champagne to celebrate and I was pleased to hear the proper pronunciation of the famous Moët champagne, 'mo-wett' – with a hard 't'. I used to cringe when I heard some of my native English speaking friends pronounce it as 'mo-way'...
Pronunciation is such an interesting topic, and many people believe that their way is indeed the correct way, but isn’t it normally a reflection of regional influences? Who’s to say ‘tomato’ should be said with a short ‘a’ or a long ‘a’ – ‘tomat-to’ or ‘tomay-to’?
Then we got to talking about Richard Vaughan, Richard Vaughan is an American from Texas who has successfully started a English learning enterprise here in Spain. People love his show and his classes on learning English. My friends exclaimed “What? YOU watch Vaughan?” Yes, I do. I like Vaughan, and believe it or not, his show actually helps improve my Spanish! However, when I said Vaughan, they asked: Isn’t his name pronounced ‘Vah – gan’? Nope, Americans say ‘Vahann’ – one syllable, and the ‘g’ is silent, I promise you - listen to how he introduces himself when he speaks. That thoroughly confused them…
Getting involved in these types of discussions can be risky. Is there an official guide to pronunciation out there? Here are some fun ones to tackle with your friends one evening…
Just tune in to Downton Abbey, where the aristocrats of Grantham proudly retain the 't' at the end of 'valet'. Contrary to the American trend of preserving a French-type stress pattern, the English tend to Anglicise terms borrowed from other languages.
I won’t go into the never-ending debate about American versus British pronunciation, let's just say that I’ve heard it both ways…
- To our friends across the channel, 'aluminium' has a second, clearly pronounced 'i'; for us Americans its aluminum, without that extra vowel.
- The 'h' on 'herb' is silent is the U.S., but clearly audible in the U.K.
But then there is the world of technical jargon and scientific terms.
- For instance, Asperger's is pronounced with a hard 'g' (and has a 'p' rather than a 'b' at the start).
- In psychology the term, 'Schadenfreude' has four syllables – an extra 'duh' on the end is often overlooked.
- According to some paleontologists, the word for the dinosaur 'Diplodocus' is a combination of two Greek words, it should sound like 'DIP-low-DOCK-us' with the emphasis on the 'dip' and the 'dock'; however the Oxford English Dictionary considers 'dip-PLOD-er-cus' to be correct
How about the pronunciation for those little image files? The inventor of the 'GIF' format insists that despite what the dictionaries and its widespread users claim, those little formats should be pronounced as 'jiff'.
However, Professor Jane Setter, co-editor of the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, suggests that it isn't up to the inventor to dictate pronunciation: "It depends on the community that uses it, particularly if it's something you normally only see written down. It usually ends up being whatever settles among users."
Also how does one pronounce the word ‘the’? I’ve been asked time and time again, and frankly, I‘ve heard it both ways. Here’s what it states online at Dictionary.com:
The pronunciation of the definite article changes, depending on whether the following sound is a consonant or a vowel:
- Before a consonant sound the pronunciation is [th uh]. Eg. the book, the mountain [th uh-book, th uh-moun-tn].
- Before a vowel sound it is usually [th ee]. Eg. the apple, the end [th ee or ap-uh l, th ee -end].
- As an emphatic form (“I didn't say a book—I said the book.”) or a citation form (“The word the is a definite article.”), the usual pronunciation is [th ee] although in both of these uses of the stressed form, [th ee] is often replaced by [th uh] especially among younger speakers.
I don’t actually remember learning this distinction in grade school, but this is true… as I’ve noticed myself also making this distinction while speaking – whether it’s done consciously or not, I do tend to follow that pronunciation norm.
So there you go. I agree with Dr. Setter - Pronunciation usually ends up being whatever settles among users. If you want to read more about this sort of thing, check out Segment 26 – My Teacher Says “Ladybird, But She’s Wrong, It’s Really Ladybug”…
… Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series, where we’ll continue … with more stuff.
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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization. Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family. She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people. She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.
HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc. With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.
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