I would like to pronounce the various names we frequently use correctly. Names like Savile Row, Gieves and Hawkes, Facconable etc. A pronounciation guide would be a big help as a "sticky". Something like this doesn't already exist does it?:icon_smile:
Pronouncing it correctly
windsor
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By the way, the family name (made up, to my knowledge, of two rather established but unrelated English family names) would be pronounced correctly quite similar to Fenshaw Chumley... It's not the foreign names only that can be challenging sometimes!p.54 Jermyn St. = "Germ Sin"
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dE
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I think it is a myth that 'Featherstonehaugh' is pronounced 'Fanshaw'. We had a teacher at school with this name who pronounced it 'Featherst'n'.
Chumley (Cholmondeley) is the bloke who got in all sorts of trouble in Kenya and who is an heir of the White Mischief guy Deves Broughton unless I am mistaken.
Chumley (Cholmondeley) is the bloke who got in all sorts of trouble in Kenya and who is an heir of the White Mischief guy Deves Broughton unless I am mistaken.
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Aristocratic families had a characteristic (and much caricatured) lazy diction (listen to Churchill's speeches, though admittedly he had a minor speech impediment - or the military characters in old English films - Ealing comedies and the like, Terry Thomas could do it). They could understand each other, but didn't care whether others could understand them or not. If you didn't understand, you were not one of them. "Fanshaw" is an approximate representation of a (very) slurred "Featherstonehaugh". I think this quite endearing mannerism is dying out now, or is dead, even.
Worldwide Accents of English
https://www.gazzaro.it/accents/files/accents2.html
https://www.gazzaro.it/accents/files/accents2.html
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+1
A friend had a bespoke shirt made at G+H recently and they confirmed the G rather than J pronunciation, as does a bespoke shirt maker in my neighbourhood.
I
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Hmm, could have a completely different meaning in this day and age...:devil: :icon_smile_big:
I
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By the way, do you say Nike or 'Nikey'?
And do you pronounce it Porsche or 'Porscher'?
And do you pronounce it Porsche or 'Porscher'?
"Nikey."
Owners pronounce it POR'-sha (imagine the "a" as a schwa, which I can't get here). The hoi-polloi, pronounce it PORSH. :icon_smile:
Here's one that has intrigued me: OMEGA...as in the watch brand. Here are some pronunciations I've heard for it:
a. Oh-MAY'-guh (how the drug/medical fraternity seem to pronounce it, as in Omega-3 fatty acids);
b. Oh-MEE'-guh (I think this how I heard Daniel Craig pronounce it in Casino Royale; also my watch-repair guy);
c. Oh-MEG'-uh -- with the "e" pronounced as in "met" (given as acceptable by some sources);
d. Aw-MEG'-uh (seems to be favored by some classical linguists).
One online source gives the first three as acceptable alternatives. I've always pronounced it as in option a. above.
How do you pronounce it?
a. Oh-MAY'-guh (how the drug/medical fraternity seem to pronounce it, as in Omega-3 fatty acids);
b. Oh-MEE'-guh (I think this how I heard Daniel Craig pronounce it in Casino Royale; also my watch-repair guy);
c. Oh-MEG'-uh -- with the "e" pronounced as in "met" (given as acceptable by some sources);
d. Aw-MEG'-uh (seems to be favored by some classical linguists).
One online source gives the first three as acceptable alternatives. I've always pronounced it as in option a. above.
How do you pronounce it?
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An amusing exchange from the British quiz show "Have I Got News for You" about the hard vs. soft G issue re: Gieves:
Paul Merton: This is, somebody was planning to make - and have, I think, made - a jacket, a hundred hamsters have gone into this jacket, and animal rights protesters have said this is terrible, and Gieves & Hawkes
[pronounced "Geeves"]
Paul Merton: I believe are the names of the tailors, Savile Row tailors.
David Steel: "Gieves"
[pron. "Jeeves"]
David Steel: , I think you'll find.
Paul Merton: "Gieves"? Is it Gieves?
David Steel: Could be. Sounds more likely, doesn't it?
Paul Merton: Does it? How's it spelled?
Angus Deayton: G-E-I.
[sic]
Paul Merton: Ah, that's the thing that threw me you see, I was following the letters.
Angus Deayton: So Gieves & Hawkes, yes, that's right. And what have they been...
Paul Merton: So "Gieves", how do you spell "Gieves"? G-I-E-V-E-S?
Angus Deayton: Yeah.
Paul Merton: Was there a special day at school where they wrote all these names on a blackboard, because I must have been off sick. So the tailors, they've made a "gacket"...
Paul Merton: This is, somebody was planning to make - and have, I think, made - a jacket, a hundred hamsters have gone into this jacket, and animal rights protesters have said this is terrible, and Gieves & Hawkes
[pronounced "Geeves"]
Paul Merton: I believe are the names of the tailors, Savile Row tailors.
David Steel: "Gieves"
[pron. "Jeeves"]
David Steel: , I think you'll find.
Paul Merton: "Gieves"? Is it Gieves?
David Steel: Could be. Sounds more likely, doesn't it?
Paul Merton: Does it? How's it spelled?
Angus Deayton: G-E-I.
[sic]
Paul Merton: Ah, that's the thing that threw me you see, I was following the letters.
Angus Deayton: So Gieves & Hawkes, yes, that's right. And what have they been...
Paul Merton: So "Gieves", how do you spell "Gieves"? G-I-E-V-E-S?
Angus Deayton: Yeah.
Paul Merton: Was there a special day at school where they wrote all these names on a blackboard, because I must have been off sick. So the tailors, they've made a "gacket"...
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Was there a special day at school where they wrote all these names on a blackboard, because I must have been off sick.
LOL! I was just thinking of that programme. I have a book of etiquette somewhere from the 1920s which lists all the shibboleth names and how to correctly pronounce them. I bet in some of the more traditional public schools this was actually part of the curriculum at one time.
LOL! I was just thinking of that programme. I have a book of etiquette somewhere from the 1920s which lists all the shibboleth names and how to correctly pronounce them. I bet in some of the more traditional public schools this was actually part of the curriculum at one time.
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As the email from G&H's marketing director pasted below shows, I now stand before you ashamed and altogether corrected about the proper (that is to say, "hard-G") pronunciation of "Gieves," and so should the panelists from "Have I Got News for You." If I could get my hands on the G&H clerk who gave me the "rhymes with Jeeves" bum steer, I would feel myself tempted to thrash him with stylish neckwear (an instrument of chastisement always so ready to hand around the premises of No. 1 Savile Row):
Dear PJC
It is a hard G as in goose, Jeaves was the butler...
Regards
Julian
Julian Boow
Marketing Director
Gieves & Hawkes
Dear PJC
It is a hard G as in goose, Jeaves was the butler...
Regards
Julian
Julian Boow
Marketing Director
Gieves & Hawkes
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Shame on Mr Boow! He might know how to pronounce Gieves but not how to spell Jeeves! And besides, Jeeves was a valet, not a butler...
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Just a gentle reminder: Pronunciations in The Queen's English vary by social class and region. While Received Pronunciation (what you hear on the Beeb and other English media outlets) is the standard, a Cockney is going to pronounce Tyrwhitt differently than an upper-class from the North. I have distant relatives that are Cockneys while a few are middle-class West End Londoners.
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Gentlemen, this thread is well over 6 years old. Might we let it rest in peace?
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