To ask if you change accents when pronouncing a foreign word?

[AnaViaSalamanca]

So it goes like this: say you are speaking English, but you have to say a place or a food's name in French. Do you change your accent to say it with a French accent? Or keep to English? For example Jardin du Luxembourg, do you say it with a french accent, or jaaaardeeen du Luxembourg or simply Luxembourg gardens?

I feel it;s very pretentious to change accents to be honest, but can't bear to pronounce things wrong so usually translate if I can, but it does get very tedious...

Is there a proper way of doing this?

I don’t think translating it is necessary but I think a lot of the time it is incredibly pretentious.

I have a friend who orders HOARITHO in an especially phlegmatic way in restaurants. It gives me the rage.

For me (speak 3 languages) I tend to pn words as they are meant to be, paella being a good example. It would sound really odd and daft to say pie-ella when it should be pie-ayya. You don't need to put on a Spanish accent, just pn correctly.

It depends on the word and the language really. I speak French pretty well so I'm more likely to pronounce those words properly but I wouldn't use an exaggerated French accent.

Some words become common usage though. Bungalow for example, is an Indian word but if you pronounce it with an Indian accent, you'll sound a bit flipping racist, won't you?

There is a difference between pronunciation and accent so I'm guessing you really mean pronunciation.

I knew this thread would get to chorizo soon enough. You can't have a thread like this without a Spanish sausage

Depends on the word, for example jardin I'd pronounce the French way, but I wouldn't pronounce bolognese the Italian way! I don't even know how I choose what words I do it to!

I don't consider pronouncing a word in another language correctly to be changing my accent. It's merely that, using the correct pronunciation. I do that most of the time, but I do use the anglicised version where there is an established one, when speaking English. (So I'd say Florence in English and Firenze in Italian.)

I do however say brusketta and not brushetta (bruschetta) as my Italian boss used to glare at me if I ordered it that way.
I pointed out that even the waitresses were pronouncing it wrong and he said that was to fit in with us!!

I certainly don’t think you should translate back to English - can you imagine going up to a perfume counter and asking for a bottle of toilet water (or personal hygiene water if we’re being pedantic)? You’d sound ridiculous.

I do remember reading older editions of books where every remotely foreign word was in italics - words like “restaurant”, “toilette”, “deshabille”, “creme de menthe”, “crepe de chine” (these were period novels, can you tell). So maybe it was more common to put on fake accents prior to widespread foreign travel.

Also would like to point out that If the word has an English equivalent I use that. Pie-Ella isn't and English equivalent. Pie-Ella is just wrong.

My DH does this with French words and I really don't like it. He sees it as 'French word, French accent, French pronunciation'. I see it as 'commonly known across the world, commonly used across the world, nolonger needs country of origin's accent and pronunciation especially when most of the produce nolonger comes from that country.

It's not changing your accent though is it? It's just pronouncing it properly. So yes I do (or attempt to), but like PPs I wouldn't if an anglicised version is common usage. Translating anything foreign into English is just fucking bizarre.

I wouldn’t know how else to say it. I’m not going to pretend to have an accent. I’m native Dutch speaker. No way am I mispronouncing Van Gogh or Hoegaarden or Gouda.

Quinn, pie-ella is wrong, but pa-eya is not widely understood to mean paella in the UK!

I’d find an embarrassing discussion with an english waitress about the correct pronunciation in Spanish far more excruciating than just saying it wrong over here. If the waitress was Spanish, I’d say it right.

I’ve said “Edin-burg” in Moscow (in English) because nobody understood where I meant otherwise. I’ve introduced myself as Yelena because Russians can’t say my name and my colleagues were struggling with a combination of throat clearing and the Russian letter X. If the purpose of language is to communicate, you have to make some adjustments for your audience.

I have a Dutch friend who made sure I know how to say 'gouda' now. I will never say 'goo-da' cheese again .

DH says restaurant in a French accent. He's from Gloucester and sounds like a twat. Now he does it as much as possible just to annoy me. He's heavily insured, so seems like a win-win to me

Bilingual dh doesn't change his accent. In English, it's all the English way (unless it would be extremely wrong) and vice versa.

It depends - in your example, OP, I would pronounce Jardin du Luxembourg with a French accent, I wouldn't think of translating it to Luxembourg Gardens and it would be ridiculous to pronounce it in English as jar-din....... On the other hand I pronounce choritzo as it looks and think its wanky to pronounce it as choritho.

In your example I'd say Zhjar-dan doo then the 'Luxembourg' bit in an English style. I wouldn't say Jardin as jar-din. But that's because I learnt French at school. I say Quass on as well. But words borrowed from other languages I only know how they are spelt or how other English people pronounce them. Hence I do say hal oh peeno but should it be hal oh pee nyo?

I think it should be hal-a-pen-yo not an o sound after the l or a long e sound.

I'm billigual with decent knowledge of French and a grasp on the German pronunciation. It is automatic that I switch accents. In fact, whenever I am speaking English (foreign language) I just mimick the accent of whoever I'm talking to without noticing. I actually think it is polite - of course I won't make it harder for someone who doesn't speak the language, so I first pronounce it correctly and then how it would sound in the language the person speaks, so they can write it down.

I think there's a halfway house, though. There's incorrect, correct but with English tone and emphasis (when using a foreign work when speaking English) and correct.

I think dh does the middle (thinking about it). It's when you change the tone etc that the word sits as badly in the sentence as when it's pronounced totally incorrectly.

I tend to adopt the hybrid approach that many posters mention - so I will broadly pronounce using the foreign pronunciation but with an English accent. I’ve never studied Spanish so tend to apply French rules to such words! My pet hate is Bureau de Change, which DH pronounces in pure English (change with a ‘Ch’ etc), whereas I would always say ‘shonj’ If that makes sense. I inwardly cringe whenever he says it!

You might be right Sashkin I went out with a Spanish lad when I was 16 and have lived in Spain for a decade now so to me I've always only known the correct pn if you know what I mean. Pie-Ella just sounds so wrong to my ears.

It's bloody chor-eetho".

Not in Latin American Spanish. I say cho-REE-so.

I have a Dutch friend who made sure I know how to say 'gouda' now.

Smoked gouda Is my favorite cheese. At home I call it "howda" but not when I'm ordering it at the shop.