A matter of pronunciation

[MikeW]

How do you pronounce the name of the aerodrome at Furnes?

Without thinking about it, I'd always thought it was "Fern Ess",
but on actually stopping and considering, it's probably "Ferns", or is something else altogether?

Can somebody put me right please?

[Volker_Nemsch]

Hello Mike!

In my opinion "Fern Ess" for the (most probably) French aerodrome would be the best choice of pronounciation.

I wonder why our French, Canadian and Belgian forumites have not answered up to now.

It is always a bit tricky for a German to explain French pronounciation to an "Engländer". The results are sometimes extremely lousy ....



Best regards!
Volker Nemsch

[WFS]

Mike,

If I remember my high school French...

The proper pronunciation is probably closer to FAIRN. The S would be silent. The E pronounced similar to a long A and the R rolled slightly on the back of the tongue. French class was a long time ago however. Hopefully some of our native French speakers will step up and set us straight on this.

Regards,
Wayne

[Michael]

After consulting my French dictionary I'll go out on a limb and say:

Fyourn

But of course this is French pronunciation. *Placenames in Belgium now have mostly changed to Flemish (Veurne). *It is even possible that Belgian French (Walloon) pronunciation differs from French pronunciation. *There are certainly differences between Quebecois French and French French.

[MikeW]

thanks guys, I think I'll keep my mouth shut *:-X


Mike

I'm with Wayne on this one: something like "fairn". My only caveat is that sometimes anglo publications don't reproduce the accents in words from other languages; if there is an accent on the last "e", then the pronunciation would change.

The "s" would still be silent, though.

[MikeW]

Michael,

No accent, I've got loads of copies of official documents from 1917, and Furnes is always spelt as I've shown it.

One thing to bear in mind I suppose, is regardless of the correct way that the Belgiums prounounced it, how did the British pronounce it?

We are notorious for changing spellings and pronunciations to suit ourselves. My wife says I still do this!


Mike

[WFS]

Mike

Chances are the British pronounced it however they felt like pronouncing it. The pronunciation varying from person to person. We Americans are just as bad. Two French surnames come to mind. Beauchamp, where I live it's pronounced "beech'-um" I met a southerner who pronounced it "bow'-shamp" (close to the french) yet around here Dubois is pronounced "doo-bwa'" (close to the french) but I've heard southerners pronounce it "doo-boyz'". So, your best bet is to say it the way you like and don't worry about it. If anyone says that isn't how it's pronounced just respond with "it is where I come from".

Regards,
Wayne

[Cigogne]

Even in France there can be different pronunciations. Take for example Guynemer.

Phonetically there is:

Gee-new-mair

or as my friend from Marseille would pronounce it:

Zsee-new-mair (the first sylable being prounounced almost like the Zsa in Zsa-Zsa Gabor. The Alsatians also have different accent/pronunciation.

[MikeW]

As luck would have it, we've got two Belgian customers in at work this morning for training.

I asked them, and they reckon it should be as follows: -

Veurner


phonetically speaking of course!