Re: UNDERWEAR LINGERIE

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:03:18 +1000, Peter Moylan
<peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Bob Cunningham wrote:

The English speaker pronouncing "commencement" or "lingerie" is not
mangling a French word. He or she is pronouncing it as the English
word should properly be pronounced.

In my experience, English "lingerie" is pronounced "lahnjeray". To
me, any other pronunciation would sound affected. A Frenchman
reading English text in English and pronouncing "lingerie" as he
pronounces it in French would be mangling the English word.

If "lingerie" were pronounced according to English pronunciation rules,

If English had pronunciation rules, would "quay" be
pronounced "kee"? Would "son" and "done" be pronounced with
the same vowel as "sun" and "dun"?

it would rhyme with "injury".

If English had pronunciation rules, what would they say
about the spelling "rhyme" versus "rime" and "thyme" versus
"time"?

What pronunciation rules can be applied to decree the
pronunciations of "rough", "thought", "though", "through",
and "bough"?

I would have no objection to calling that
a correct English pronunciation.

A "correct" English pronunciation can only be what most
English speakers have agreed to use. However it came about,
"lahnjeray" is the accepted American English pronunciation
of "lingerie", and it's no more open to objection than "key"
is for "quay".

The "lahnjeray" of your region or the "lawnjeray" that's common in Australia

In my region, the two ("lahn" and "lawn") have identical
pronunciations.

are the result of people attempting to sound French, and failing dismally.

We can discuss historical reasons for accepted
pronunciations, or we can discuss the accepted
pronunciations themselves. The two are separate topics.

The American people who say "lahnjeray" are not attempting
to sound French and failing miserably. They're pronouncing
"lingerie" in the way they've learned is normal for American
English. And when they say "commencement", they're not
failing miserably to say the equivalent French
"K@mah~smah~". They're pronouncing it in an acceptable
English way.

It's too late to change it by now, but it's a pity that we're stuck with
a pronunciation that is incompatible with both French and English norms.

Again, English norms?
.

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