Re: OT: pronunciation question
| From: | Remi Villatel <maxilys@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, November 30, 2003, 2:20 |
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Mark J. Reed wrote:
> I've recently encountered in written form a new name, apparently
> popular among male French Canadians, which I have never heard
> pronounced. It is spelled "Ghyslain", and from what little I know
> of French orthography I would guess it is pronounced as CXS
> [giz'l&~], but if someone who actually knows could confirm or correct
> that, I'd appreciate it.
Je dirais plutôt [ZislE~]... (Cough!) ;-)
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~].)
The official IPA char for [E~] is Epsilon (U+025b) with a tilde over it.
In France Ghislain (with an "i") and its feminine form Ghislaine [ZislEn]
are quite old-fashioned. But the Canadians and the Quebecers like to keep
alive some french traditions. I guess they pronounce it with an american
accent: [dZIsleIn].
See ya,
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Remi Villatel
maxilys@normandnet.fr
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