Say it right

Timothy C. Tyler · 08-31-2002, 08:27 PM

The other day a noted gallery owner mispronounced a name. There are several artists that get mispronounced so often that I'm no longer sure myself. This guy said Henri as a French first name. I've always heard that Henri was an American that assumed his name after his father was convicted of murder and that HE always wanted it pronounced Hen-rie, not "on ree"

The other is Ingres. The French tell me it's 2 (not one, syllable), very soft second...ong-grah.

Van Gogh sounds pretty nasty when said right and always sounds like putting on airs when said true to the Dutch. When is correct right?

Michael Georges · 09-01-2002, 01:18 AM

Tim: Understand completely what you mean. My biggie is Bouguereau.

I have heard it pronounced:

"Boo-jer-oh"
"Booj-row"
"Bu-jer-o"
"Boo-garo"
"Boo-ger-ew"
"Bo-ger-o"
"Bo-ger-ew"

To this day, I don't really know the correct pronounciation having had several conflicting ways of saying it from people who "should know". I think it is "Booj-row"

Michael Fournier · 09-01-2002, 11:07 AM

Being one who was blessed with a French name while living in the USA, I would like to add that the what is accepted as the proper pronunciation has a lot to do with where you're from or where you are at the time.

I say my name as my relatives in Montreal pronounce it, with the "ier" pronounced as "a". And my first name pronounced more like Michelle then the Anglo Michael (with the ch pronounced like a k) But many Fournier's (which is a much more common name then you would think) pronounce it like Four-ni-err it drives me nuts. A lot of people think I am being pretentious just because I use the French pronunciation of my name. I even grew up with teachers trying to correct me I would say my name as Michelle Fourn-a and they would say you mean Mi"K"ael Four-ni-err; after a while I just gave up. Also Pelletier is another French name that many here in the US do not pronounce correctly. But the same people will pronounce Mark Mesier's name just fine and they all pronounce "Cartier" correct as well. I always joke I guess you have to win a Stanley Cup or be a jeweler to get your name pronounced correctly.

Well at least when I visit relatives in Canada, I get to hear my name correctly. But since my family did not speak French at home (only my father is French) I never learned much beyond how to say my name, and the swears my father would mutter when he hit his thumb with a hammer or something. Also I always knew I was in trouble when I heard my dad yell my full name in French followed by a bunch more French I did not need to understand to know the meaning of.

If you are French the o sound at the end is just "o" (rather truncated sounding) not like "ooh" as some might say. It's not easy to really say French names correctly with a American English accent - you start to sound like you are imitating Peter Sellers as inspector Clouseau. (another name with that "eau" at the end.

Chris Saper · 09-01-2002, 12:15 PM

Michael,

What an enjoyable note! Although my silent pronunciation of your last name was correct, I admit I had been thinking the hard "k" in Michael.

French pronunciation, I believe, of the "g" depends upon what follows it. The 'g' is soft (zhe sound) when followed by an "e", for example, Jean-Leon Gerome. However the "g" becomes a hard "g" when followed by a "u" as in "guerre" (the French word for war), or as in Bouguereau.

I had prounced Bouguereau's name wrong for years, and an artist friend and I got into a discussion about hard and soft "g"s. Then she pointed out that I had been spelling it wrong all along, without the second "u".

Au revoir.

Michael Fournier · 09-01-2002, 01:01 PM

Chris,

I have heard the name Bouguereau both ways, but I think you might be correct. But I can only go by what I have heard. Just because my relatives are French, it does not mean I or they are pronouncing every word correctly.

After all French is just like English or any other language: how you pronounce words has a lot to do with where you are from and how educated your parents were. We all learn most of our speech from what we grow up hearing. After all, we all have heard people mispronounce words who are very educated themselves. Here in Massachusetts idea always seems to get a "r" added at the end. Maybe it's where all the "r's" go that the Bostonians don't use.

Timothy C. Tyler · 09-01-2002, 03:13 PM

So it's boug-er-o (hard g) right? Now what of Henri?

A friend of mine once pointed out that if your name is spelled Bill and you say it's pronounced Sam then it is pronounced Sam.

I read years ago that Henri wanted his name pronounced Hen-rie. Anyone else heard that?

Susan Ballinger · 09-01-2002, 06:10 PM

This thread seems to have come at the right time for me. I picked up a book on Bouguereau the other day, but I don't know that I've ever heard his name said by anyone else. I stumble over it every time. I guess I know now!

On a side note, everyone always asks me about my last name. It's my married name. For anyone who has not seen it before, they would never be able to pronounce it correctly. Meierotto pronounced my-row-tee. It sounds Italian when said, but it is actually German. This can be seen when broken down into 'meier' and 'otto', which are both common in German names. The other day on the news, they had the first person in Iowa to contract the West Nile Virus - a man with my last name, but not directly related. I couldn't believe that all of the newspeople actually managed to say it and spell it correctly!

Leopoldo Benavidez · 09-01-2002, 06:35 PM

Here is one that I have mispronounced for years, CHIAOSCURO. My good friend Aurora at the other forum helped me out on this one. must have been her italian heritage! key-ah-ro-skooro The single o's are long. The double oo's are like the oo's in cool.....L

Timothy C. Tyler · 09-01-2002, 09:04 PM

I always thought is was "ker-ezs-scue-roe"

Michael Fournier · 09-01-2002, 09:28 PM

Quote:

I read years ago that Henri wanted his name pronounced Hen-rie. Anyone else heard that?

Well, Tim, unless we actually know if this is true, I would pronounce it on-ree based on spelling and heritage; but I suppose if Prince (He is now back to Prince and not the artist formally know as stuff) could have a symbol with no audible pronunciation at all as a name then Henri can be Hen-rie.