Port-au-Prince

[AgentProvocateur]

How would you pronounce Port-au-Prince? I'd instinctively say "Pranz" (in my best Glasgwegian-French accent!) but every journalist pronounces it Prince, so I presume that's right.

It just seems odd to pronounce half the term in French (Port-au) then the second half in English. It's neither one thing nor the other.

Like the french would say it.

Yes, I've wondered about this. I've heard 2 or 3 journalists/commentators use the French pronunciation of 'Prince', but about 99% don't. I wondered if perhaps this is because proximity to USA has led to an Anglo pronunciation, even among local people? Or maybe 99% of journalists/commentators have just got it wrong?

I would (& have been) say (ing) it in French too.

If they want it to sound English they should write it Porto Prince (although then, come to think of it, we purists would probably say Porto Prin-chay )

I think it should be Port au Pranz (sorry, can't do proper phonetic spelling). I know that place names do become anglicized and we don't talk about going on Eurostar to Paree, but when it's the last word of what is obviously a French expression then it ought to be Pranz.

I think the five of us are correct, and the journalists are wrong!

Well, they clearly are wrong in terms of the rules of French pronunciation. But I can see that, if you are covering a humanitarian disaster on that scale, it may seem a bit poncy to fuss about such things.

I would definitely pronounce it the french way - however perhaps the creole pronunciation is different?

Ex BBC journo here - every day we'd have a list from the Pronunciation Unit of potentially tricky words currently in the news. Pronunciation of towns/cities etc is almost always the accepted local pronunciation, so as all the BBC journos are saying "Porto Prince", I would strongly suspect that's what people in Haiti say. Obviously I can't vouch for what other news organisations might do ...

Thanks for clearing this up, mimsum.