Pronunciation?

[gregory]

I've always said Thoth as it looks there. I know people who say Toth, and one who says Foff..... (to get out of wondering.)

 

[Sophie]

TAA-ro. HIGH-ro-fant.

BTW, when I was taking French I learned that supposedly French has no accented syllables; the syllables are equal, except for those with a "schwa" E which often get swallowed. The English perception of the French accenting on the second syllable comes from hearing it equal to the first instead of secondary to it, thus implying that the first syllable has to be the unaccented one! Wrong... But the English ear has done this from time immemorial. In a way, the French Canadians seem to have followed the English in this, probably because they're surrounded by English speakers whether they like it or not. I'm trying to remember my mother's French, which seemed to have been a cross between France French and Anglicized French (at least in syllable stress--Old Canadian French is pronounced like nothing else on earth, and is most likely a medieval throwback).

Take for instance the name Marie, the French form of Mary. English says MAY-ree. French says MAH-REE. So English calls the French form mah-REE.

And we won't mention silent consonants on the end of around 90% of French words...

I'm a native French speaker - I second all of that.


I say TAH-row in English and TA-RÔ in French. Because it's a foreign word (in English), the final t isn't pronounced. Nothing against people who do pronounce it, but it does make it harder to understand them.

I agree that punctuation is vital; but pronunciation can be vital too for comprehension. Mind you, with all the accents that exist in the English language, we probably need a few English-English dictionaries

 

[nisaba]

I've always said Thoth as it looks there. I know people who say Toth, and one who says Foff..... (to get out of wondering.)

Then again, a friend of mine says Tot.

Like a little child in English, not Death in German.