How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#401 Post by knives » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:53 pm

Would have never guessed that. That's a real harsh thing to pronounce.

Mathew2468
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:40 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#402 Post by Mathew2468 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:56 pm

For example: Kafka's The Castle is Das Schloss or Das Schloß.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#403 Post by Moe Dickstein » Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:22 pm

its actually an "ss" sound

edit: DOH beaten. My high school German remains pointless.

Chull
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:17 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#404 Post by Chull » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:00 am

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."

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sinemadelisikiz
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:36 pm
Location: CA

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#405 Post by sinemadelisikiz » Sat Jul 20, 2013 2:00 am

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.

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liquid_city
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:27 am
Location: Portland, OR

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#406 Post by liquid_city » Sat Jul 20, 2013 3:54 am

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!

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#407 Post by manicsounds » Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:39 am

knives wrote: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.

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#408 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:33 am

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
Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2011 4:01 am

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#409 Post by Kauno » Sun Jul 21, 2013 4:05 pm

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.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#410 Post by Gregory » Sun Jul 21, 2013 4:37 pm

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.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#411 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sun Jul 21, 2013 9:50 pm

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.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#412 Post by Matt » Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:24 pm

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

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Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#413 Post by Jeff » Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:29 pm

Matt wrote:And how is "Winding" pronounced? Like a "wind" that blows or like "winding" a watch?
I believe it's basically "vending."

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#414 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:32 pm

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
Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2011 4:01 am

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#415 Post by Kauno » Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:10 am

Should I put Costa-Gavras under C?

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tojoed
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:47 am
Location: Cambridge, England

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#416 Post by tojoed » Sat Aug 15, 2015 3:15 pm

Kauno wrote:Should I put Costa-Gavras under C?
Yes, his name is Constantin Costa-Gavras., I think.

Werewolf by Night

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#417 Post by Werewolf by Night » Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:59 pm

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

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Swift
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:52 pm
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Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#418 Post by Swift » Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:09 pm

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.

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thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#419 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:29 pm

Cameron Swift wrote: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?

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#420 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Mar 21, 2016 6:48 pm

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

AK
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:06 am

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#421 Post by AK » Tue Mar 22, 2016 4:41 am

thirtyframesasecond wrote:
Cameron Swift wrote: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"?

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MichaelB
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Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#422 Post by MichaelB » Tue Mar 22, 2016 4:59 am

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

AK
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:06 am

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#423 Post by AK » Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:35 am

MichaelB wrote: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.
Last edited by AK on Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#424 Post by MichaelB » Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:41 am

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
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2006 7:06 am

Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name

#425 Post by AK » Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:49 am

MichaelB wrote: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.

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