Marc Ouellet, whose name has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Benedict XVI as pope.
It’s pronounced “mark” as to rhyme with “bark.”
J/K
It’s pronounced “wuh - LET.”
I checked several YouTube videos where he’s introduced in English and French to verify. Plus, I know someone with the same surname who pronounces it that way.
With the difference that “r” in French tends to be trilled, not voiced as in English. The hard English “r” is one of the strongest markers of an English accent when speaking French.
It’s pronounced “well-ette”, more or less.
While admitting that names aren’t always pronounced like regular words, I’d expect that name to be pronounced well-EH. But I suppose it’s etymologically the same name as the somewhat more common form “Ouellette,” where the T would definitely be pronounced.
All right, where’s Hypnagogic Jerk to tell us the real story?
As a Canadian, if a Quebec pope is elected, the Mayan calander will finally come true.
Oh, and FYI, in Quebec, the name Marc is pronounced “Muck”. Trust me.
It probably should be “well-eh”, if we’re being scholarly about it, but in my experience most Quebecois - at least in my social/geographical zone - said both Ouellet and Ouellette the same, with the “well-ette” pronunciation.
My cite is that I grew up in Longueuil.
It’s “well-ette", and you can take that to the bank. Some people write their names “Ouellette”, others “Ouellet”, but I’ve never heard of anyone not pronouncing the “t” at the end. This, plus what Northern Piper said about the pronunciation of the “r” in “Marc”.
There you go, at 0:18 of the video.
He’s been MIA for half a year - wish he’d come back.
Well, the standard French “r” is usually not trilled. It’s usually just a uvular fricative. There is a version that is a uvular trill that is used in some dialects, and there is also a version that is an alveolar trill (which is what most English speakers associate with a “trilled r,” in my experience), but those aren’t standard dialect. The French “r” is similar to a German “r,” aka a “guttural r.” It comes from the back of the throat.
I’m not meaning to be pedantic, but they’re quite distinct sounds, and my Spanish teachers would constantly catch me putting in French (guttural) r’s where Spanish rr’s (alveolar trills) belonged.
Thanks for the detailed explanation - I appreciate it.
I don’t personally have the technical background to explain it properly, but have had it drilled into me by various French teachers to avoid the English voiced “r”; listening to French speakers, I think of it as “trilled,” but understand that’s not the technically proper term.
The main difference is what I think of as a “trilled r,” also a “rolled r”, it’s a sound coming from the front of the mouth, whereas the French “r” is in the back, like a gargle or something. I actually found a good example here on Youtube. It irritates me, as I can’t trill my "r"s any more. I used to be able to, as a kid, but somehow, I forgot how to and haven’t been able to successfully relearn. I can do a single alveolar tap (like one “r”) but not a proper trill (with multiple flaps.) The French “r” I can do, though.
You can’t mark an Ouellet without breaking some oeufs.
Besides pulykamell’s excellent correction of your description of the various “r’s,” let me add that I think you might be using the word “voiced” incorrectly. The French fricative “r” is usually voiced as well.
Perhaps pulykamell can suggest a term which best describes the quality of the typical English “r” that you are most interested in conveying. “Liquid,” perhaps? “Glide”? (In any case, it’s a pretty rare sound among languages. By chance, the two most commonly spoken ones globally – Mandarin Chinese being the other – just happen to include it.)
I was going to mention the use of voicing as well, but forgot along the way.
The “r” is technically called an alveolar or retroflex approximant in English. I don’t know if there’s any non-technical name for it.
The non-technical description for pretty much every difference in sound (on this board and elsewhere) is hard or soft. It does not tell you much about the sound, but it does tell you the person describing that sound might very well not know what they are talking about. Of course, some Slavic languages form an exception in which sounds are technically described as soft/hard.
The French “R,” a total bitch for me to say. I’ve worked out that to say “Louvre” you say “Loove” and think really hard about pronouncing an “r” and not consciously work at saying the R out loud, and voila, there it is.
Somebody please try this and see if it works for you.
In passing, I often mistake, at brief casual not-paying-attention hearing, Israeli Hebrew for French, which is stunning. It’s the same R.
Talk in English with someone from Alsace-Lorraine–specifically that region–who has a strong accent, and you will be sure they are teasing when they say they are not Israeli. I know someone from there and it is consistently weird.
Interesting article about Cardinal Ouellette from the Globe & Mail: Can the Cardinal who couldn’t save his Quebec church save the Vatican?