French Wine Names in English

Fair enough, Ho-seh :) You touch on the subtleties of pronuciation that I avoided (in French, the n of Sancerre is quite different from an English n. And, of course, that final d of ciudad doesn't sound much like an English d in most of the Spanish-speaking cultures I've visited). Feel free to continue the tutorial, though ;-)

Mark Lipton

Hello, Mark! You wrote on Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:56:18 -0400:

ML> Jose wrote: ??>>> whereas carne is ??>>> pronounced "car-nay" ??>>

??>> NO, a thousand times no! It's pronounced "car-neh". The ??>> "nay" ending is an awful gringoism, despite the fact that ??>> I've actually seen it in textbooks. Makes you wonder ??>> about the authors.

ML> Fair enough, Ho-seh :) You touch on the subtleties of ML> pronuciation that I avoided (in French, the n of Sancerre ML> is quite different from an English n. And, of course, that ML> final d of ciudad doesn't sound much like an English d in ML> most of the Spanish-speaking cultures I've visited). Feel ML> free to continue the tutorial, though ;-)

IMHO, it's fine to get as close as possible using the vowels, consonants and emphasis to which you are accustomed but I agree with Fowler that it is affected to use unusual sounds when you are speaking your own language. I think it's a bit silly to hear English-speaking music announcers giving the full Italian emphasis to names :-)

I suppose you can learn the simple rules in Spanish and the fact that an accent marks an unusual emphasis. I was very impressed when I saw my first copy of the Spanish Royal Academy dictionary when I found that it had *no* pronunciation guide even if Spanish rules do differ in different parts of the world :-)

James Silverton Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

Most I can let slip... but the "ay" really gets me! It seems to be the one thing that Americans have a hard time "getting".

Jose (who pronounces his name "hoe zay" in English, but "Hoh seh" in Spanish)

Not to argue with you, but I don't think that this (spelled) pronounciation quite captures the nasal quality of what I take to be the true (French) pronounciation.

Vino

I just say BV. It's easier to remember.

Vino

I'm not sure how common it it, butI have certainly heard Hermitage pronounced as the English word when referring to the French wine. Thsi was by a wine merchant.

Indeed! A typo, and my apologies.

Before being (and producing) wines, Bourgogne/Burgundy and Champagne are regions. For whatever reasons, most historically important regions (i.e. former duchies, counties etc) have different names in different languages.

Imagine there was an appellation contrôlée "Bretagne" for your favorite Muscadet, chances are that English speakers would probably refer to it as "Brittanny"

Hope this helps

Yves

Well, in English we spell Bordeaux, Loire, and Rhone as the French do, and pronounce them at least approximately correctly.. What's so different about Burgundy and Champagne?

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