How to Say: French presidential names
16:26 UK time, Friday, 27 April 2007
A guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the 91Èȱ¬ Pronunciation Unit.
For defeated centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, the pronunciation is fraa(ng)-SWAA bigh-ROO. Ségolène Royal is say-go-LEN rwaa-YAL - we don't anglicise it to "roy-AL".
For Nicolas Sarkozy we recommend nee-ko-LAA sar-koh-ZEE, preserving stress on the last syllable in line with our usual treatment for French. This surname is pronounced in a variety of ways in France, perhaps because of its Hungarian origins (the Hungarian surname Sárközy is pronounced SHAR-koe-zi - oe as in French "coeur"), but our research suggests that sar-koh-ZEE is the most widespread and most appropriate pronunciation for M Nicolas.
In particular, people we consulted on this particular name in the French Embassy and in 91Èȱ¬'s team of French monitors strongly disliked the "cozy" pronunciation with stress on the middle syllable, even in English-speaking contexts.
(For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.)
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