Pronunciation of Gigondas

] How is Gigondas pronounced in France? I thought that in Gigondas I heard it ] pronounced like the listing below from an on-line dictionary. A friend of ] mine is a high school French teacher and wine drinker. She thought the "s" ] is not pronounced for this particular word and I think she put an emphasis ] on the "gon" syllable. ] ] Fred ] _________

Hi Fred,

Your friend, like so many high school french teachers, is mistaken. The 's' is pronounced. The emphasis would be lightly on the first syllable.

My cousin was a high school french teacher in california, and actually lives in france now. Whenever she speaks to anyone, they immediatly break into english. Her accent is that awful. Although her french is semantically excellent, in fact, and I'm sure she spells better than me! ;)

-E

] ] Gigondas AC ] [zhee-gawn-dahss; zhee-gawn-dahss] ] Gigondas AC was upgraded from côtes du rhône-villages ac status to its own ] appellation in 1971. It surrounds the village of the same name, which is ] located northeast of châteauneuf-du-pape in France's southern rhône region. ] The wines are mainly red, with a small amount of rosé. The main grape ] variety is grenache, which is blended with cinsaut, mourvèdre, and syrah. ] Gigondas wines are generally big and robust and require several years of ] bottle aging to soften. ] ]

She obviously got too caught up in pronunciation "rules". As Emery says, the "s" is pronounced, just as it is in Cornas. I think I remember hearing that in the Rhone a lot of the local names go back to Gaelic/Celtic times.

A couple of years ago we were in a supposedly upscale restaurant in Lowell, MA (on way to Portland ME). Mediocre list, I thought a modest Gigondas was best choice. After repeating my order 3 times, I finally pointed on the menu. "Oh, you mean the Jig-GOND-ass!" the waitress exclaimed. :)

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

As you've already been told, the trailing s is pronounced. The reason for this is that the French are quite scrupulous about prouncing names (including place names) according to the rules of the language from whence those names come. In the case of the South of France, it's recognized that the place names date from the times when the languages spoken there were Occitane -- so they are pronounced according to the rules of those languages.

Mark Lipton

And, O pedantic one, it still exists as a living language (as you may know). I don't think it's as widespread as, say, Breton -- which is taught it schools and has radio and TV stations -- but there are plenty of folk who use it. Very melodious, too, it is.

-E

Interesting. I once had a discussion with someone that insisted Roederer was pronoucned roe-der-ray, but I thought it was properly pronounced roe-der-rer, I suspect it's originally a German name. Now I wonder what the correct pronounciation really is.

Dana

Correct.

roe-der-rer.

Although there are some traps with companies with original German names. Krug, e.g., is pronunced the German way (kroog), while both Taittinger and Bollinger, finish the French way on -jay, not -jer.

M.

thought the "s"

those names

Occitane -- so

It *is* a pedantic aside I guess (g) but history is important. I doubt that Londres is pronounced "lunders" !

Jim.

But if you ask for it in France and use the English pronounciation "roe-der-rer" they look puzzled since the French pronunciation is more...well...French with a bit of a throaty "Rrrro-dare-rrrrare". Bi!!

And how does Reims become "Rance" and Vosne Romanee become "Vahn-Ro-man-ee"? I understand that Vosne is ancient French. Bi!!

This is *exactly* the way that I say it (as far as I can tell from your description), and this is *exactly* what the "French expert" took exception to.

;-)

Dana

roe-? Wouldn't it be more like Röderer in German and thus unpronounceable to those living off the coast of Europe...? :-) Anders

Of course.

Exactly.

M.

] >>

] >It *is* a pedantic aside I guess (g) but history is important. I doubt ] >that Londres is pronounced "lunders" ! ] ] And how does Reims become "Rance" and Vosne Romanee become "Vahn-Ro-man-ee"? I ] understand that Vosne is ancient French. ] Bi!!

Bill,

I've never met anyone who can explain why you Reims your hair after washing it, but it seems to me that Vosne is standard pronunciation. An 's' before a consonant is often silent. "Isle" (eel) for instance.

An example in a place name around here is "les Aspres." Always confuses furriners, pronounced "lehs ap." (There is a tiny swallowed gutteral sound after the 'p', but I can't think how to write it...)

-E

Obviously you've never been to Islip, New York! :-) Bi!!

It's written Ap~, Emery! ;-)

Mark Lipton

It seems as though I've been pronouncing it correctly! Phew. But another question--Veuve Cliquot. I always say "veuve" with the vowels resembling "look." But I have heard others pronounce "veuve" like "move" so many times that I'm questioning my pronunciation, although I thought my way was in keeping with French pronunciation. Help?

Cherie

Think of how a posh brit would pronounce "verve". That's as close as I can get, without resorting to the phonetic alphabet...

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Thanks for the explanation Mark. It is interesting to know why it doesn't confirm to the standard rules of pronunciation. Thanks to everyone else that responded, also.

Fred