|
|
|
|
Shiraz - Wine Rookie Question (Going OT)
in article , Roy at
wrote on 4/21/04 10:32 AM:
> Midlife wrote:
>
>> The name Porsche is a prime example. All over the US it's usually
>> pronounced "PORSH", when every really knowledgeable source will say
>> "POR-SHUH".
>
> Actually, some people pronounce it, "PORSH", for the same reason they say,
> "SHEVY", for Chevrolet. [And how do you pronounce, "Chevrolet", if you stick
> to
> the pronounciation according to the country of origin? "CHEV-ROW-LETT"? :-)
> ]
>
> Regards,
>
> - Roy
>
> =*=*=
> Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark
> Twain
> The truth is rarely pure, and never simple. - Oscar Wilde
>
>
That's an interesting take, and one that I have never considered. Adding
the "UH" to "PORSH" seems barely more than a quick exhale at the end, not
really a shortening of it or a "nickname" (as I would consider "Chevy" to be
for Chevrolet). Further, I certainly have no real knowledge of French
pronunciation (and may be about to prove it), but the "AY" sound at the end
of Chevrolet always seemed to make sense given that I've thought final
consonants are generally not sounded in French. Is it really pronounced
"Chev-ro-lett" in France (or Switzerland, where Louis Chevrolet was born)??
Much of my thinking on this has been that the difference is that Porsche is
a man's name (Ferdinand Porsche, a German) and the car is made in Germany,
so it seems something of a liberty to Anglicize that pronunciation. So...
the Chevrolet question is really quite central to this.
Any third opinions out there?
|