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ArchivesRe: How would Vespasienne (fem.) be pronounced in French?
in reply to a message by CN
I agree with you that many English speakers who don't speak any language with the sound [e], as French or Spanish, will pronounce [eI] instead of only [e] when they see AY. But, this is the most approximate that they can have in their language and to their ears both pronounciations sound pretty much the same or very close.
That is why, for example, the phrase "No way, José" was coined. To my ears "way" and "José" don't rhyme ("way" and the Spanish "rey" do), but for the English speakers they do:
"Why Jose? There's no reason to think that Jose was an actual person. The name was probably chosen for the rhyme with 'no way', which predates the longer phrase."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-way-jose.html
You can't hear the difference between the English vowel [ɜː] (open-mid central unrounded) and the French and Swedish [ø] (close-mid front rounded) or the French and Swedish [œ] (open-mid front rounded) because your language system doesn't have the first one as phoneme, so you perceive it as an allophone of these two sounds, probably mainly as allophone of the open-mid front rounded vowel, which has a more near articulation point.
The E when saying the French alphabet is NOT pronounced like the EU sond, it is pronounced [ə] (usually called schwa in English), a mid central vowel (unrounded in English and rounded in French or Catalan). The same is true for the E in words as renard or regard and this is the reason why the sound can even disappear, a situation common with the schwa in unstressed syllables.
Again, you identify this schwa sound as a [œ] (open-mid front rounded) because in Swedish it doesn't exist as a phoneme (according to Wikipedia, it only exists in some dialects as allophone for some unstressed syllables).
You can try to distinguish the English vowels from the French vowels using this video (French vowels):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=RJVxe4inqyg
and this website (American English vowels, but it also has some British English vowels):
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
That is why, for example, the phrase "No way, José" was coined. To my ears "way" and "José" don't rhyme ("way" and the Spanish "rey" do), but for the English speakers they do:
"Why Jose? There's no reason to think that Jose was an actual person. The name was probably chosen for the rhyme with 'no way', which predates the longer phrase."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-way-jose.html
You can't hear the difference between the English vowel [ɜː] (open-mid central unrounded) and the French and Swedish [ø] (close-mid front rounded) or the French and Swedish [œ] (open-mid front rounded) because your language system doesn't have the first one as phoneme, so you perceive it as an allophone of these two sounds, probably mainly as allophone of the open-mid front rounded vowel, which has a more near articulation point.
The E when saying the French alphabet is NOT pronounced like the EU sond, it is pronounced [ə] (usually called schwa in English), a mid central vowel (unrounded in English and rounded in French or Catalan). The same is true for the E in words as renard or regard and this is the reason why the sound can even disappear, a situation common with the schwa in unstressed syllables.
Again, you identify this schwa sound as a [œ] (open-mid front rounded) because in Swedish it doesn't exist as a phoneme (according to Wikipedia, it only exists in some dialects as allophone for some unstressed syllables).
You can try to distinguish the English vowels from the French vowels using this video (French vowels):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=RJVxe4inqyg
and this website (American English vowels, but it also has some British English vowels):
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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