How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

[Chull]

I watched European Vacation a few years ago with my girlfriend, for the first time since it came out. The only laugh I remember was when they were in Germany, on their way to visit relatives and, getting close, Chevy Chase says "Here we are - Dippelstrabe." My girlfriend laughed, which puzzled me because, although I got the joke, I didn't figure she would (having next to no experience with foreign languages.) I asked her if she had and she replied "No -but that's how I would have pronounced it, so I knew it had to be wrong."

[sinemadelisikiz]

It's actually a soft "s" sound. If memory serves it's not used in Switzerland, where instead it's replaced with just an "ss".

Edit: Oops, how did I miss all these responses on the next page? Haha.

[liquid_city]

I talked to a Lithuanian student recently and this is my recollection of what she explained:

Šarūnas Bartas = Shah-rooo-nuss Bahr-tahs
Trys dienos = Triss dee-eh-nohs
Mūsų nedaug = Mooosooo neh-da-oog

From what I understand, ū and ų are actually the same sound in Lithuanian (long oo), the "hook" one is just always used on the end of words and the one with the line when not at the end. Anyone with this mother tongue, feel free to verify or correct!

[manicsounds]

This is a more a general language question, but in German how is the ß pronounced? I've been using a very hard B sound like in Bub, but I obviously don't know for sure.

It's a double "S". Like the word "Street" in German is "Straße" or "Strasse", pronounced like "straw-sa". It's not a "B" sound at all.

[Mr Sausage]

If you can forgive my pedantry:

Straße should technically be pronounced shtrah - suh. In words beginning with -st in German, the -s generally makes an -sh sound.

If you're ever unsure, I believe google translate has a pronunciation feature.

[Kauno]

This is off topic, but I'm a sad and sorry lad - what is Nicolas Winding Refn's surname (family name)? I assume I should put him under W.

[Gregory]

Right, it's Winding Refn, a double last name. I still usually see him referred to by last name as "Refn." Many still don't understand or accept the notion of a double last name, which is understandable. It can be complicated and hard to verify.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Even Danish media refers to him as both "Refn" and "Winding Refn." Either they're no more clear on it than the rest of the world, or they just use "Refn" when it's more convenient. But "Winding" is definitely part of the surname, so for sorting purposes there shouldn't be any ambiguity.

[Matt]

And how is "Winding" pronounced? Like a "wind" that blows or like "winding" a watch?

[Jeff]

And how is "Winding" pronounced? Like a "wind" that blows or like "winding" a watch?

I believe it's basically "vending."

[Mr Sausage]

Technically neither, as the -w sounds like a -v. I don't think -i is used as a dipthong in Danish, so it either sounds like ih (eg. it) or eh.

EDIT: Jeff beat me to it.

[Kauno]

Should I put Costa-Gavras under C?

[tojoed]

Should I put Costa-Gavras under C?

Yes, his name is Constantin Costa-Gavras., I think.

[Werewolf by Night]

His name is Konstantinos Gavras, but I would shelve under "C," as I do with my Cher albums.

[Swift]

Does anybody know the correct pronunciation of John le Carré's surname? I'd always thought of it as rhyming with le Carray, but I heard it pronounced on the BBC recently as le Carry.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Does anybody know the correct pronunciation of John le Carré's surname? I'd always thought of it as rhyming with le Carray, but I heard it pronounced on the BBC recently as le Carry.

Assuming it's a French acute, it should be Carray, right?

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, that's both how it reads and how I've always heard it. The difference might get swallowed in some accents, though.

[AK]

Does anybody know the correct pronunciation of John le Carré's surname? I'd always thought of it as rhyming with le Carray, but I heard it pronounced on the BBC recently as le Carry.

Assuming it's a French acute, it should be Carray, right?

That's an interesting name, especially since it's French but is used by a writer who speaks English, meaning it's not exactly clear how to pronounce it.

Wikipedia confirms what you said (IPA: /lə ˈkɑːrˌeɪ/). I've always thought it's /lə ˈkɑːɹˌɛ/, without the final diphthong and with a French r-sound, as in the word rouge (IPA: /ɹuːʒ/). Depending on how the IPA is used, with /lə ˈkɑːrˌeɪ/ the r-sound could go either way. (Sometimes, to distinguish between the two, they could also write it /lə ˈkɑːɹˌeɪ/, with an inverse "r" if it's pronounced how the French pronounce it).

I'm not able to search further for any audio samples now, but does anyone who how the author himself pronounces that "r"?

[MichaelB]

It's a pseudonym, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be pronounced like the French "carré" (or "carray").

[AK]

It's a pseudonym, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be pronounced like the French "carré" (or "carray").

I might be missing something here as to what you mean, but I don't think carray and carré are pronounced the same way unless your point is to demonstrate how that last vowel is pronounced. That is, isn't the r-sound in "carray" in this example similar to what we have in the first name "Raymond" or "Rick", those being English names?

The French word carré is pronounced /ka.ʁe/, the r-sound like in the word rien, where it is formed more in the throat (uvular fricative) and not how it's done in English ("Ray", "rookie", etc.). To this pertains my question as to how the author might pronounce it, and why this such an interesting name.

[MichaelB]

The way I pronounce it, in a British English accent, sounds like "carray".

If you exaggerate the Frenchness, as you seem to be advocating, I suspect you run the considerable risk of just sounding pretentious and affected, not least because Le Carré himself is British.

A good parallel example would be the actor John Le Mesurier. As a French speaker, the temptation to say "Mezhooreeay" is very great indeed, but in actual fact it sounds more like the English word "measurer".

[AK]

The way I pronounce it, in a British English accent, sounds like "carray".

If you exaggerate the Frenchness, as you seem to be advocating, I suspect you run the considerable risk of just sounding pretentious and affected, not least because Le Carré himself is British.

A good parallel example would be the actor John Le Mesurier. As a French speaker, the temptation to say "Mezhooreeay" is very great indeed, but in actual fact it sounds more like the English word "measurer".

I was trying to find out and bring awareness to the question whether the author pronounces the name with the uvular fricative or not. Since he chose a French pen name, I was interested in whether he pronounces his name more in the English way of pronouncing that particular consonant sound or not. How this has anything to do with me "exaggerating the Frenchness" as I "seem to be advocating", I honestly don't know.

[Tommaso]

A good parallel example would be the actor John Le Mesurier. As a French speaker, the temptation to say "Mezhooreeay" is very great indeed, but in actual fact it sounds more like the English word "measurer".

Reminds me of how I once heard someone pronounce the name of a certain famous British actor as "Loronce Olivyé".

[AK]

A good parallel example would be the actor John Le Mesurier. As a French speaker, the temptation to say "Mezhooreeay" is very great indeed, but in actual fact it sounds more like the English word "measurer".

Reminds me of how I once heard someone pronounce the name of a certain famous British actor as "Loronce Olivyé".

I was in awe when I heard how Satyajit Ray is pronounced on the Wikipedia page. Now that would raise a few eyebrows if I adapted that pronunciation in speech with my friends. The problem is, however, that not many of my friends know of Ray anyway, so that joke would be lost on them, unfortunately.

I'm digressing a bit now, but regarding Michael's earlier point on sounding pretentious earlier... The word in question was "circuit training". Now, in our country we pronounce "circuit" as /sirkuit/ (IPA). Well, two of my friends asked me where I'd been, so I answered the way it's usually pronounced around here, and he was like "Huh?" Only when I repeated it in English did he realize what I was saying. Then, the other friend came around a bit later and again asked the same question, only this time I pronounced it as we do in English... and he thought I was insane! I don't think he's seen me the same way ever since, that is, after recovering from the laughing fit that overtook him.

[Mr Sausage]

Reminds me, too, of this bit about the British pronunciation of Ricky Gervais' name.

I remember once in undergrad trying to convince a skeptical friend of mine that Byron's Don Juan should be pronounced the English way, JOO - un, and not the Spanish, hwan, and that the rhyme scheme of the poem often depends on the English pronunciation. Never did manage to convince her that I wasn't just trying to cover up my own ignorance.