How do you pronounce the name of the city where a film festival is currently underway?
Closer to “Cahn”, but with the mouth making a sort of wider smile, and the tongue hits the roof of the mouth for the “n” further forward than in English, and pulls away while the word is still being pronounced (unlike in English, where the tongue just kind of sits there, stuck to the roof of the mouth, even after the final “n” is done sounding).
Luckily, I’ve never had to bust my ignorance by speaking it.
KHAAAAAAAAN!
(Someone had to do it.)
I almost said that in the poll. Guess I shoulda.
I’ve only heard it referred to on TV, and forever I thought it was the canned film festival.
Actually seeing it written out, I would definitely go with can. It’s obviously French, and standard French uses /a/, which, in French, sounds a lot like our /æ/. If you want to get specific, I say it with the same vowel as in cat, not as in can. Unfortunately, I can find no IPA guide that distinguishes between the two, and they are very different.
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It’s can like van. Or it was back in my French class days.
Crap. I wanted it to be me. {whine} {sulk} {mope} 
The Canniss Pretentio-Fest.
What with it being in France and all. 
Cannes is pronounced “can”, as you say. But I’m interested that you differentiate in the a sound in can and the a sound in cat - to me, these are exactly the same sound. I’ve never heard anyone making a distinction between them - how do you say them both?
Not to speak for BigT, but while “cat” and “can” can have the same vowel sounds in some dialects, most standard American dialects have some sort of nasal, triphthongy … thing … in “can” instead of [æ].
I should think that the people who put a glide in “can” also put it in “cat.”
‘Something else’, I guess. I just pronounce it in French, which isn’t quite like ‘Can’ or ‘Cahn’, both of which I find have too low a sound to the A.
It’s the anticipation of the “n” that makes the difference.
When I consciously say [kæn], it sounds slightly affected to my ear (my accent is sort of a mish-mash of Midwest and light New England). There is a definite different between the vowels (“can” is more closed) and definitely no glide in “cat”. I think my “can” is closer to [keən] than anything, but it’s probably impossible to really write.
Really, trying to nail down precise vowel sounds, especially in English, is mostly futile.
Nope. At least, around here, the glide is reserved for /æ/ preceding a nasal. In fact, the only place I’ve heard it used in “cat” is on South Park (by Mr. Garrison). I always assumed it was a comical overuse, since I never hear it otherwise. (Granted, I’m not usually listening for it.)
Yes, that is true, but I’m referring to the pure vowel. It’s kinda a more open version of [e], but without shifting to mid front like [ɛ] or [æ]. I think that, for once, IPA is insufficient, so here are three audio files with me saying the English words pin, pen, pan, and pat:
[ul]
[li]“Properly” enunciating[/li][li]Everyday speech[/li][li]Sung to avoid the diphthong[/li][/ul]
I think we should adopt the term “nasal, triphthongy … thing” and come up with an IPA symbol to represent it.
Who’s with me?
Now that that’s solved, how does one differentiate its pronunciation from that of the Normandy town, Caen?
I was going to say, “Toronto”, but it’s not September yet.