Quote:
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
It's still a mystery that the international phonetics alphabet is not more in use unless it has to do with the size of the required keyboard...
You'll never know how to correctly pronounce the name Vercingétorix unless you are French. Even for Anglophones who have spent most of their lives with Francophones it's next to impossible. The syllables 'un', 'in', 'on' are physically difficult and some never master it. Vice versa, 'th' is as complicated for the French.
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Fortunately, Vercingetorix has an Anglophonic pronunciation, a la Paris, but I realize it wouldn't fly in French class. In other contexts we say versinJETericks, which seems fair enough given his Gallic war context.
As for "th", the real heartbreaker must come when you discover that there are two pronunciations of "th." "Thine" and "thin" have a different "th", as do "this" and "thistle," just as two examples.