----- Original Message -----
From: "Remi Villatel" <maxilys@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: OT: pronunciation question
> Jean-François Colson wrote:
>
> >>>pronounced. It is spelled "Ghyslain", and from what little I know
>
> >>Je dirais plutôt [ZislE~]... (Cough!) ;-)
>
> > That's right, but in Belgium there's a town (near Mons) named
Saint-Ghislain
> > and I've always heard it pronounced [sE~gilE~]. Is that an old or an
> > alternative pronunciation?
>
> Funny! :-) [gilE~] sounds very much like [vilE~] "vilain" = ugly. But
now
> I remember that I've already heard about a woman named [gilEn]. On TV, I
> just see that first name spellt "Guilène". (Odd!)
>
> On the other hand, I've never heard about any [gilE~] but only about
> [ZislE~] although "gh" is always pronounced as [g] like in "ghetto". (Very
> bad example but I know no other word with "gh".)
ghilde, spaghetti and Ghana, for example.
>
> >>I'd rather say [ZislE~] where [E~] represents the sound you can found in
> >>french words like "fin" [fE~], "brun" [bRE~], "vain" [vE~], "vingt"
[vE~]
> >
> > or
> >
> >>"à-jeun" [&:jE~]. (That's all the orthographies for [E~].)
>
> Error! I meant [a:ZE~]... (Should have re-read this!)
>
> > For me brun is [bR9~] and brin is [brE~]. Then if there's shit on the
grass
> > you can get un brin brun [9~ brE~ br9~]. ;-)
> > And "a jeun" (Why did you write it with an hyphen?) is [aZ9~] for me.
>
> YAFPT! Yet Another French Pronounciation Thread! ;-)
>
> I'm french and I can't hear the difference between [E~] and [9~]. Maybe
> because of my local accent? And I'll never use "brun" to talk about shit
but
> "marron" [maRO~]. "Brun" is used only to describe hair and skin. (YMMV) In
> my mouth, "un brin brun" sounds [E~ bRE~ bRE~] and a bit silly. ;-) I
> think that French keeps on evolving and some differences disappear, like
[a]
> vs. [A] and [E~] vs. [9~].
>
> I used an hyphen to keep the 2 words "à" et "jeun" on the same line and I
> think there should be one.
Vraiment? Je n'en suis pas sûr du tout. Faudrait vérifier.
>
> See ya,
CU2
Jean-François Colson
jfcolson@belgacom.net