Re: French phonetics

From: Francesco Brighenti
Message: 62711
Date: 2009-02-01

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Petr Hrubis <petr.hrubis@...> wrote:

> Then tell me, Francesco, how do the Italians pronounce McDonald,
> where is the stress in the Italian pronunciation.

More or less like it's pronounced by "mooncow" (male from UK) in the
following link:

http://forvo.com/word/mcdonald's/

The stress is preserved, yet Italians pronounce McDonald with an
open -o- (that's the main difference with the British
pronounciation).

Still, we are very far from the "degeneration" represented by the
Japanese pronounciation [ma.ku.do.na.ru.do], although both Japanse
and Italian languages love open syllables so much!

> Also, tell me, do the Italians really pronounce François [frAN'swa]
> with the nasal vowel, uvular R, final stress and [sw] group? I'm
> asking because, since those sounds are strange to the Czech mouth
> and ear, we pronounce it as ['fran.so.a], i.e. initial stress, no
> nazalized vowels, three syllables (period = syllable boundary). ;-)

Average Italian people usually pronounce François without uvular R
and nasalized vowel, but preserving the final stress and the [sw]
group; thus, more or less as [fran'swa]. Yet, if they were to show
the same attitude to foreign names as that shown by the French, they
should pronounce it, roughly, as [fran.'ko.is] (three syllables as
in the case of the Czechs).

Best,
Francesco