Why does Clive Tyldseley

[Guest]

Nah, i just call you out as exactly what you are.

Didn't see that backhanded compliment.

I don't give you enough credit for it though.

[Red_Polo]

I completely understand how silly it can sound when someone talking in a perfectly normal English accent of some kind suddenly pronounces a foreign word or name like a native speaker and of course some people go too far. I can understand it might make people seem pretentious (in some cases they may well be) and their pronunciation is over-elaborate as a result of some form of cultural snobbery or one-upmanship.

However, as we all travel more, as the influences on everyday life come from further and further afield and as we all know more and more people who come from anywhere on the planet, then what are you supposed to do when you learn a word or a name is pronounced a certain way?

To use the examples above, pronouncing the 's' in Paris makes sense because that's how we're all brought up to pronounce it, before we even know it's called 'paree' by the people who live there. But I think it's far to say people would pronounce Nice to rhyme with Reece rather than rice. To do otherwise would just be inverted snobbery as far as I can see.

And that's surely as bad as the perceived sin of the cultural snobs in the first place.

Good post

Going back to the specific situation mentioned in the original post, though, I am going to be pedantic, potentially yolking my own face in the process, and go against the Francophone. Tyldesley is not pronouncing it correctly. Silent 's', fair enough, but should it not be Nico-lah rather than Nico-luh?

[TheStig]

Exactly. In French we never pronounce the 's', it's 'Nicola'.

[TheStig]

Good post

Going back to the specific situation mentioned in the original post, though, I am going to be pedantic, potentially yolking my own face in the process, and go against the Francophone. Tyldesley is not pronouncing it correctly. Silent 's', fair enough, but should it not be Nico-lah rather than Nico-luh?

Yeah, it should actually!