What is the preferred pronunciation of Cannes? Dictionary.com offers ‘kann’, ‘kanns’, and ‘kahn’. (I’ve altered those a bit, since I don’t know how to make the special characters.)
I prefer ‘kann’; but what do the locals call their city?
In the month or so I spent on the Riviera (I speak pretty good French, though far from native or fluent), I heard something very like “Kahn” from locals.
“Kahn”
Kahn.
Loathe when US reports say “Kahn”, but then refer to Par-s instead of ‘pa-ree’…the inconsistency annoys me.
If it is Kahn, then it is Pa-ree.
You could argue that ‘Par-s’ is the English name of the French city ‘pa-ree’, just like Rome and Munich have English names that differ from their local names, and that it’s just a coincidence* that the French and English names are written with the same characters.
Cannes, on the other hand, isn’t well known enough internationally, or hasn’t been for well known for enough time, to have developed it’s own English name.
I think well-to-do English have been visiting Nice and Cannes for a long, long time.
I don’t mean that no English people knew Cannes existed. Just that it isn’t well known enough to have its own English name. Many very large cities do, most smaller cities don’t.
Yeah, but it just doesn’t have the importance of Florence (Firenze) or Naples (Napoli). How do Americans normally pronounce the name of the film festival? I’ve always rather wondered since I read about it more than I talk about it.
Upon reading this question, my first thought was of William Shatner shouting KHAN!!! at the top of his lungs in Star Trek II.
It’s pronounced [can] by French speakers, more “tin can” than Genghis Khan, but you attack the “c” a little harder and the “a” is shorter. Some people hit the “n” a little harder too - almost an extra syllable.
Not to be confused with conne (twat) !
So are you saying that if you tell a French person that you are going to the’kahn’ film festival, they will think you’re going to the twat film festival.
How do the French pronounce “conne” anyway?
conne is kind of halfway between “khan” and “cone”, in some parts of the south (west of Cannes) it’s closer to “kong”.
Gotta say though, that an earlier discussion proved the impossibility of explaining phonetics in writing. Just make sure you mention the Palme d’Or, the trophy at the porno festival is called the Hot d’Or.
Waitaminnit – you guys are telling me that a French film festival killed James T. Kirk’s son? I ain’t buyin’ it.
No, neither Cannes nor Khan killed David Marcus.
It was Emmet “Doc” Brown.
Over here, we usually say CAN. As the French do. The A is short.
CAN, or CAN-nuh if you’re trying to be very French and pronounce the double “n”.
KAHN would work if the town was in Germany, not France!