Here's a good link from the Resource Shelf, one of my favorite Web sources. The Voice of America (VOA) Pronunciation Guide is a nifty way to hear the real way to say the names of international persons and places in the news.
I tried Nicolas Sarkozy, just to check my high school French. Boy was I off! OK, I'm using the American tv news announcer pronunciation, but still.... I left the "s" on Nicolas - WRONG - and put the accent on the ''koz" in Sarkozy - DOUBLE WRONG.
Try it yourself. Check the Short List link at the bottom of the screen for recent names in the news. Make yourself sound brilliant!
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The BBC pronounces it sar-KOZE-ee so I'm sticking with that version. They also leave the "s" on Nicolas which I now question. I'm going to go ask a Parisian.
ReplyDeleteVOA's Methodology at http://ibb7.ibb.gov/pronunciations/method.htm says that they try to pronounce a name like the person would say their own name. I guess I would like that if it were me (I mean, "I"?) --Maj. Reader
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