--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet"
<fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
> What's wrong with "Pouchkine", "Lénine", "Gorbatchev", "Poutine" ?
> This is a standard translitteration into French phonetics.
In a weekend spirit, let me make the following reasoning.
"Lénine": French pronunciation <le'nin>
But Russian pronunciation is <'ljenin>
The French transliteration results in a wrong stress
(And let us pass over the wrong rendering of Russian /je/, which is
shared by most of other foreign renderings of Lenin's name, although
here in Italy learned people write it "Lenin" but generally
pronounce it correctly as <'ljenin>)
"Poutine": French pronunciation <pu'tin>
But Russian pronunciation is <'putjin>
The French transliteration results in a wrong stress
(In Italian or English renderings: no stress problems)
"Pouchkine": French pronounciation <push'kin>
But Russian pronounciation is <'pushkjin>
Wrong stress again!
(In the Italian or English renderings: no stress problems)
I could go on endlessly with examples of words, selected from any
language of the world, that the "very scientific" rules applied to
the standard transliteration into French phonetics would invariably
turn into words with wrong stress (and dubious renderings of vowels).
That is what most irritates me. All other languages are made
subservient to the "rules" of French phonetics inasmuch as the
latter must be evidently the "correct" ones, no matter if the rest
of the world don't speak that way!
Now the French have also turned their new First Lady, the Italian
top-model Carla Bruni (Italian pronunciation: <'carla 'bruni>) into
<caR'la bRy'ni>: wrong stress again, both in her first name and
surname! I would like to suggest the French government to officially
spell this name as "Cârla Brûni" to avoid its mispronunciation in
France (let's pass over the inevitable use of the French R to
pronounce it, although that type of R is certainly not found in the
original...). But this, of course, would never be possible because
it would go against the "scientific rules" of French phonetics!
Happy weekend!
Francesco