Poll for Pronunciation of “Neofinetia”

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Shoreguy

I believe the third option recognizes its origin Finet.

Actually the first option is much closer to 'Finet'. The anglophone way of teaching french prononciations is far from accurate. Finet is not prononced fi-NAY. The 'net' part of the name is actually prononced like the English word 'net', with the t silent. So if you want to stay true to the native prononciation of Finet, option 1 is closest. In French, using what I wrote above, we would prononce it Neo-fi-ne-thee-a

(Don't get me started on how the French alphabet is taught in English. b,c,d is NOT prononced BAY SAY DAY!)

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Actually the first option is much closer to 'Finet'. The anglophone way of teaching french prononciations is far from accurate. Finet is not prononced fi-NAY. The 'net' part of the name is actually prononced like the English word 'net', with the t silent. So if you want to stay true to the native prononciation of Finet, option 1 is closest. In French, using what I wrote above, we would prononce it Neo-fi-ne-thee-a

(Don't get me started on how the French alphabet is taught in English. b,c,d is NOT prononced BAY SAY DAY!)

Late to the party, but totally agree with Camille. Grandson is in a French language immersion school... I've learned the phrase Camille uses "The anglophone way of teaching [insert choice of language here] to be pretty much across the board whether French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, etc, etc, etc.

Heck, even folks who speak English disagree about pronunciation of certain words. Thus to be correct, we must go back to the origin of the word as opposed to the vernacular.

[DirtyCoconuts]

this brings me to a funny question i often ask myself, is it correct to say something in its original language pronunciation when speaking a different language?

like when you say YEE-ro for gyro, correct, in Greek but im not speaking Greek, i'm ordering food in Miami to a guy who speaks mostly Latin American Spanish.

or when i encounter latin in my daily work...no one uses the proper pronunciation of voir dire or pro hac vice or any number of phrases

so i guess the question for me is not what is the correct pronunciation but what is the acceptable one where

[WaterWitchin]

Amen! Excellent question! If you ever figure that out, please let me know! I think the answer to that, for me, remains "It Depends."

I'm especially good (or bad, depending on others' attitude) about throwing words in their original pronunciation into my Midwestern accent and conversations. YEE-roh is an excellent example. I do a ton of that with Spanish words, as I used to speak un poquito. Sometimes one gets a real "look" from the individual being spoken to.

In that category, I figure they'll either "get it" and if they don't, they will ask. You mean you want one of them GI-ros? Especially with objects or things. From the standpoint of someone's name, I think one should always attempt to pronounce it as it was first pronounced to them. At least an attempt. I know of no Hispanic folks who want to be called JE-sus instead of Hay-SUS.

In the legal field, if someone who is also in the legal field says Vore-Dire instead of Vwar-deer it calls for an eye roll... unless it's a judge of course. If in doubt, just say "jury selection."

Horse-doovers anyone?

[Shoreguy]

Wow. Now I am really confused. I'll have to read this several times which may help.

At least I now got some greater participation in my thread.

[DirtyCoconuts]

hors d'oeuvres is one of the best lol

i agree %100 about names but i still always ask because, another side track, now people are spelling their own names phonetically WRONG??!?! i do not understand the need to be SO different that you spell your child's name wrong....but that's another thread.

[WaterWitchin]

I'm not sure I even wanna "go there" on that name business, new thread or not.

[Tony L]

Orchids Magazine pronunciation page uses née-oh-fin-ET-ee-ah.

[Hakumin]

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I guess I'll ask a question to the French speakers out there.

So, my understanding is that certain consonants when they show up at the end of the word are not pronounced, such as the T in the surname Finet.

However, what happens when that word or name is modified in some way so that what was the last letter is no longer the last letter? It is now pronounced, no?

For example. In the name Paris, when pronounced in French, the S is not pronounced. However, when you want to talk about someone from Paris, the word is modified to Parisien or Parisienne, in which case the S is now pronounced.

Also when you feminize an adjective, a final consonant that is silent in masculine, is then pronounced in the feminine after adding the E, correct? For example Petit vs Petite, or Vert vs Verte.

And lastly, in the surname of the mathematician René Descartes, the final s is not pronounced. However when you are speaking of the Cartesianism, in French the word is Cartésianisme, where that S is now pronounced.



So, my question is, when a French person's name is used to form an epithet, does this rule follow? Because if it does follow, then I would assume the T is pronounced.

Or does it follow every other rule of French pronunciation while ignoring this basic rule?

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Hakumin

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I guess I'll ask a question to the French speakers out there.

So, my understanding is that certain consonants when they show up at the end of the word are not pronounced, such as the T in the surname Finet.

However, what happens when that word or name is modified in some way so that what was the last letter is no longer the last letter? It is now pronounced, no?

For example. In the name Paris, when pronounced in French, the S is not pronounced. However, when you want to talk about someone from Paris, the word is modified to Parisien or Parisienne, in which case the S is now pronounced.

Also when you feminize an adjective, a final consonant that is silent in masculine, is then pronounced in the feminine after adding the E, correct? For example Petit vs Petite, or Vert vs Verte.

And lastly, in the surname of the mathematician René Descartes, the final s is not pronounced. However when you are speaking of the Cartesianism, in French the word is Cartésianisme, where that S is now pronounced.



So, my question is, when a French person's name is used to form an epithet, does this rule follow? Because if it does follow, then I would assume the T is pronounced.

Or does it follow every other rule of French pronunciation while ignoring this basic rule?

I would say that in most cases where a word with a silent last letter becomes part of a larger word (like an adjective) , that last letter is then pronounced. Most of these words have the silent letter in the masculin version of the word, but in the féminin version the extra vowel tacked on at the end will lead to pronunciation of the silent letter. The same happens when making a larger word.

So in French, the 't' of finet will be prononced in neofinetia.

One thing to note is that prononciation of Latin names should follow the conventions, however latin being a dead language, the rules regarding Latin prononciation can differ from language to language. I know that there are differences in latin prononciations between French and Spanish(Spain) for instance, and I'm guessing that latin prononciation in anglophone countries could also be slightly different.