Comments on: More on BBC Pronunciation

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:17:54 +0000

Alan -
I don’t speak any Chinese, Mandarin or otherwise, but I’m willing to bet that the Mandarin pronunciation of European capital cities is not always identical to that used by native speakers of the relevant languages in Europe itself. This does not stop Europeans who do speak Mandarin recognizing the names when they hear them, and likewise Chinese who speak English will learn that Peking was the established anglicization of their capital’s name for over a hundred years.

By: Alan Duan

Alan Duan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:20:31 +0000

Well, obviously if bay-jing is not pronounced the same way as it’s called (according to the two characters of the capital) then Chinese born after 70’s and most parts of the world wouldn’t know what place the BBC is talking about if they continue to pronounce the old pe-king mispronounced by westerners for at least 156 years. and, in China you can never find anyone would pronounce the capital that way Graham. Anyway I believe it’s about time the BBC abandoned ‘pe-king’, and at least people in China are pleased about this.

By: Graham

Graham — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:49:20 +0000

Heather -
Regional pronunciation doesn’t affect the phonological distinction between the two words ‘leisure’ and ‘ledger’: the first always has a voiced palato-alveolar fricative as its medial consonant, and the second always has a voiced affricate. The second produces the closer approximation to the Mandarin pronunciation of Beijing.

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:59:47 +0000

I don’t see the point of requiring that everyone pronounce Beijing in the same way since regional pronunciations on the news seem to as well accepted as the traditional BBC accent these days, as long as they are understandable to the general English speaking public.

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:14:20 +0000

Athel - I don't remember hearing anyone stressing Sarkozy on the first syllable in English, although most three-syllable French names seem to be anglicized to first-syllable stress (think Baudelaire, Mitterrand, etc). I say "most", because of such names as Debussy (second syllable) and Lafontaine (third). English doesn't really accept a lack of stress on a multi-syllabic word, so that option isn't available, and equal strong stresses wouldn't work either (the tendency would be to weaken the middle syllable of the three - as Jack Windsor Lewis has pointed out here).

By: Athel Cornish-Bowden

Athel Cornish-Bowden — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:40:57 +0000

Normally I can never remember exactly how Sarkozy is pronounced on French television, and when I hear the name I tend not to be thinking about this sort of discussion. So in my posting yesterday I was writing from an uncertain memory. This morning, however, I have three times heard a recording in which the Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, talks about his forthcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama in the presence of Carla Bruni Sarkozy. The third time I listed carefully and could detect virtually no difference in stress between the three syllables.

By: Beijing Sounds

Beijing Sounds — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:18:37 +0000

Thanks for the BBC PU info. From this post:
“… Beizzhing has no real sponsors, no BBC Pronunciation Unit rooting for it.

By: Athel Cornish-Bowden

Athel Cornish-Bowden — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:10:59 +0000

Perhaps a start could be made by standardising the French President’s name: there is still a lot of disagreement between the second-syllable and third-syllable stressers.

No first-syllable stressers? Or are there no speakers of Hungarian origin on the BBC? What about non-stressers (as it almost is in French)?