I tease m'learned friends David and James for being pedantic;But I'm the one who phoned up BBC London to protest their newsreader's pronunciation of recently deceased author John Fowles' novel, The French Lieutenant's Woman.
"It's a British novel about British characters, so it's pronouncedI hate myself.
'left-tenant', not the American 'loo-tenant'."
As does the newsreader, who at the next bulletin thanked "the listener who phoned up to correct me." Through gritted teeth, I think.
5 comments:
Pedant.
Where does that pronunciation come from, by the way? I mean, nobody pronounces it the "correct" way, if we acknowledge that it's a French word and so should be "lyooh" tenant or something, but still, "loo" is closer than "lef," wouldn't you say?
There, Pete. Feel better now that you can grind your teeth at someone else? What else am I here for?
James, You're fighting a losing battle on this one. Remember, these are the people who pronounce fillet like 'fillit' instead of 'fillay.' I think they do it just to irritate the French. Sort of a verbal two fingers.
Well we don't pronounce 'Paris' as 'Par-ee', either.
Some words just exist in anglicised form in the English Language.
Should you pronounce 'Don Quixote' the spanish way, but the English word 'quixotic', which obviously derives from the action of that novel, the English way?
Here's one for you: My surname, as of Jan. 1, is going to be Poirier. The French (and therefore correct) pronounciation is "pwa-yay." The groom's family says Por-ee-yay. Which way do I go?
I choose my battles carefully. Fillet LOOKS like "fill it". Paris LOOKS like we pronounce it. I don't have any problem with anglicization. What I'm taking issue with is the perverse insertion of a non-existent F into "lieutenant". That's not anglicization; that's just linguistic hooliganism.
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