People seem to fight about this as though it's life or death, and everyone on both sides is equally convinced of their own pronounciation.

Pou-LANK (rhymes with "rank" or "stank")

or

Poul-LONGC (rhymes with Long-k or honk)

The second way.

I wasn't aware of any controversy (or any con TROV er sy, even :p ).

Steven

Ha!

In high school, my piano teacher pronounced it Pou-LONGC. Then when I got to college, my professor corrected me by saying POU-lank, which is the way to say a word like "Poulenc" in French.

Then, just last month, I ran into a person who actually knew Francis Poulenc, and he said it's Pou-LONGC.

Don't even get me started on Alberto Ginastera.

jee-nah-STEH-ra.

Tomasino

toe-ma-SEE-no

When I was just beginning the piano I read "Chopin" as "cho-pin", that is, perfectly phonetically, starting with a "ch" for "ch"ess, so I read it as "choping" with more "in" at the end instead of the "inG".

Now, of course I pronounce it right . . . but when reading (not out loud obviously) I think I still read it as I did before, but am unsure because I can never quite remember once I've read it, and if I read it conciously then I'm too aware to misread it . . . but I think I read it as I did before.

Actually I must do, because I think I say it out loud like that when I'm nervous.


"Hopinmad" does not help!

Poulen... drop the C? Thats how I would pronounce it.

Matt

Final consonants in French words (names) are usually[/b] silent, except for C, R, F, and L.
Some notable exceptions :

Herold
Berlioz
Saint-Saëns
Hahn

Regards,

Poolonk! with the stress on the lonk.

The French Larousse dictionary - a good authority - gives the correction pronunciation in the IPA as [pu lɛ~nk], and as closely as I can transliterate it, it is :

Poo lank, accent on the last syllable.

The Petit Robert, Dictionnaire universel des noms propres confirms this pronunciation.

Regards,

It is (IPA: [pulɛ̃k])
where the /ɛ̃/ is a nasalized short e, similar to the e in the english word 'bet' only nasalized

Poo - lenk

Dang, I've been using the wrong vowel! I had assumed that it was the same as in sans or France, when in reality it's the one in cinq (or Chopin!).

I didn't consider that en sometimes goes both ways: vendredi, comprend ... vs. rien, bien, chien. But not usually, n'est-ce pas, Bruce? Isn't it typically represented by in or ain and not by en other than in the combination ien?

I will now Anglicize Poulenc to "poo LANK" rather than "poo LAHNK."

Thanks, you guys. I love both French and phonology!

Steven

In the US, people make a point of Americanizing
French words, indeed do it with a vengence.
Pronouncing French words with authentic
French pronunciation is considered improper
in the US. I've never heard it pronounced,
but by US standards, it would be pronounced
as though it were an English word, thus:
"poo-LENK," or "POO-lenk," with the "len"
pronounced like the "len" in "length."

I detest the way Chopin is pronounced in the US . . . that accent on the second syllable is horrible!

I'd like to see someone try to type out how to pronounce the distinctive French "k" sound.

That's not typical, though it could be regional. I don't think I've ever heard Chopin pronounced in English with the second syllable stressed.

Steven

I hope you're not too stressed to learn that in French, names are invariably pronounced with the accent on the last syllable. One could say, then, that Americans pronouncing Chopin's name with the accent on the last syllable are just emulating correct pronunciation.

Cho.pin[/b].
Ra.cine[/b]
Bau.de.laire[/b]
Saint Saëns[/b]
Boil.dieu[/b]
Ra.meau[/b]
Char.pen.tier[/b]
etc.,
etc.,

Regards,

Add Bizet and Ravel to Bruce's list.

Honestly, when I hear a person say "SHOW-pan," I immediately think that he or she has no real musical knowledge.

I resemble that remark! (I give both syllables almost equal weight, actually, with a slight emphasis on the first.)

Do folks in your neck of the woods really say "show-PAN"?

FWIW, it's always worth considering that variations reflect regional differences as easily as educational ones.

Steven

Where Americanized French is concerned, my favorite is a small town in Missouri near where I grew up called "Bois d'arc."

Anybody want to guess how we said it in Missouri?

The stress on most French words, including names, is more or less equal. If one simply must stress one syllable over another, the last one is the one which receives the stress.

SHOW-pan is not right. But certainly neither is show-PAN, with an obvious accent.

Not right? Neither one is "right" vis-à-vis the French pronunciation; Anglicizations are only approximations, and on that basis I wouldn't call either "not right."

FWIW, Wikipedia confirms that SHOW-pan is dominant in English:
(The apostrophe denotes primary stress.)

Steven

i can't think of anything...how do you say it in missouri?

it's just the way french is structured, there are sounds that are unique to french, especially those nasal sounds like -in or -en
i can't really write how chopin or poulenc are pronounced, i guess bruce's phonetic form is the best (i didn't you spoke french btw)
personally i don't pronounce the c (or k) at the end of poulenc

I don't know about Missouri, but in Texas we pronounce it BOW-dark. It's the name of a tree also called "Horse Apple Tree".

Audio pronuncian of Poulenc from Merriam Webster

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?bixpou01.wav=Poulenc

-----------------------------------------------

I don't think it's regional While I may be a southerner, I promise you that I don't say "Chopin" with a pronounced southern accent. It isn't "show-PAYAN."

Speaking of towns/cities, there are Beaufort, South Carolina, and Beaufort, North Carolina. The first is "Byoo-fort;" the second is "Bow-fort." Accent on the first syllable. Maybe it's another North/South thing.

Fran-swah

Awn-tee Lin

Plonk!



Steven

DuBois, Pennsylvania is pronounced "DOO boyz."

Yes, I'm sorry, but it is.

Fortunately it's right on Route 80 so you can keep driving past at 65+mph.

Following that practice, and knowing that Chopin's father was French, how would you pronounce "Chopin" in the presence of your musical friends?

Would they double over with laughter?

Concerning the previous posts on stressing syllables in "Chopin" . . . even if it's correct in French to accent the second (or last) syllable, it's not done so as strongly as in America. It's said in American in American way (as was mentioned earlier, is fashionable) that gives a much stronger stress on the second syllable.

I give only a slight stress on the first, if any actually, and others I've heard in the area say it the same.

But then, I mean, French words in Welsh accent? Inconceivable!