General Chat

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Has French pronunciation changed???

I thought the River Seine was pronounced rather like "sayne" (closest I can get to it)

Our newsreaders are suddenly saying "sen"

There’s a tendency for broadcasters to try to pronounce places names as the locals do. If I’d noticed UK newsreaders saying Sen, I’d probably assume they’d swallowed the consonants.

Here in south east, we have historic towns known collectively as Cinque Ports.

Newsreaders unfamiliar with them pronounce them in the expected French way, but cinque in this instance is pronounced 'sink'.

Our newscasters are supposed to pronounce place names as the locals do .............. which is why OH and I both noticed this sudden change to "Sen".

I wondered if the French have changed their pronunciation, or were we taught wrongly way back when?

We live in Cambridgeshire & the broadcasters always call our river The Nen, it is never called that by the locals, always called The Neen (our way of saying it), proper spelling is The Nene.

It's not easy to get everything spot-on in our monolingual nation.

French - what a beautiful language!

Internet searches give 2 suggestions. Sen & Sehen.

Where’s a French person when you need one? Could regional accents be coming into play?

cue Rollo

Ah, but the pronunciation from someone raised in say Paris, could be different from a person from Avignon. ;-) :-D

French Canada French grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation are a lot different to modern metropolitan French. The River Seine is currently in flood. "Seine" is pronounced as the "sen" part of send, sentry etc NOT as in "sane pain train etc.". Although it is a single flat word do not over shorten it.

France does not have anything like as much internal language variation as the UK. That said the dulcet tones of Parisiennes can enrage the rest of the country at a distance.

The English tend to make a terrible hash of French pronounciation by failing to make sounds with the lips and teeth and to use the nasal space to project the voice. The effect on the French varies but is rarely positive.

I just wish Halnaker would get a mention more often!

Bang on cue, or should that be Kew?

The Australians of course cannot get English straight let alone make a stab at French. In a land where the cultural icons are Ned Kelly, Rolf Harris and soap TV stars not too much should be expected. Deep Water.

I have heard both versions, though not in France.

It is always good that the newsreaders etc do try and get the place names 'as they should be'. Anyone who has lived or lives in Wales will have cringed on many occasions when listening to Welsh place names being mangled by reporters etc. Like Kay Burley a late relative of mine could never get Machynlleth :-D F/FFs, DDs and LLs being problematical without some practice :-)

Rollo, I'm English and even I can't get English straight. Being from Lancashire, there are many differences in pronunciation for the same words compared to other areas of the UK

One word ( though there are others just as confusing)

Happisburgh :-D

Hapsbruh? Or thereabouts

Just listened to a lovely light-hearted programme on BBC Radio 4 concerning 'words' - whose use defines which social class we belong to - upper class or aspiring middle class.

I'm sure there must be a French equivalent. Rollo might know.

"Haze-bruh" apparently Allan :-D

Ah!

Cholmondeley....Chumley :-D