I’ve been enjoying the current series of The Borgias, but there is one thing that I find extremely grating, namely, the pronunciation of the name of Cesare Borgia.
I assume that the Italian pronunciation would be [tʃe’zare] (che-ZA-rey) (with no diphthong at the end).
I’m assuming that the ordinary Anglicization of this name is “Caesar” ['sizɚ] (SEE-zer) in General American and ['sizə] (SEE-zuh) in R.P.
However, on the show they are pronouncing it as ['tʃɛzəreɪ] (CHEZZ-uh-ray).
This pronunciation is driving me crazy. Is it a common way to Anglicize the Italian name “Cesare”? Is it something that has been going on for years and I’ve just never caught on to? If it’s going to be Anglicized, why not just go all the way? Why go with this fish-half-out-of-the-water pronunciation?
I don’t think it’s an anglicization, but I’m also not sure it’s wrong. Remember, it takes place in Rome in the late 1400’s. Pronuciations change in every language over the course of a few hundred years.
As I understand it (not being an Italian speaker), you have the correct vowel sounds in your version, but the show’s version has the correct stress. Thus ['tʃezare] is the correct form (maybe with [ɛ] in the first syllable).
It’s not entirely unreasonable in my view for this to be pronounced by an English speaker as ['tʃɛzəreɪ]. The schwa is a bit sloppy, mind.
ETA:
The two Italian residents in the Forvo link seem to be using [ɛ], with the stress pattern as I indicated.
As noted by A. Gwilliam - the show correctly stresses the first syllable, and correctly renders the ‘s’ as ‘zzz’. As for the vowels, well Italian vowels aren’t the same as English vowels, without even getting into regional variations, changes over time etc. so I’d give them a pass on that.
An English speaker would tend to “under-accentuate” the ‘a’, and transform the ‘re’ (about as in ‘wreck’) into ‘ray’.
If you have an English name like, say, Thomas, wouldn’t you expect foreigners to do you the courtesy of pronouncing it at least roughly like you do, rather than, say, “Toe-MAHH”? Names should be pronounced as they are by their owners, as far as possible and unless they agree to go by an Anglicised version thereof.
I provided the IPA transcription to make it unambiguous.
First of all, this is a completely different situation than dealing with a living person face-to-face. This is a dramatic presentation in which largely British actors speaking in English are performing a fictionalized version of a historical story. There’s absolutely no reason to try to resurrect the original speech and pronunciations of the characters. The damn show’s in English. Don’t switch to a really bad Italian accent for the sake of one single name. Not only is it historically wrong, it’s dramatically stupid. Drives me nuts. Just call him Caesar.
According to this spoken-word link, ['tʃɛzəreɪ] – with the first syllable stressed – is very close. The Italian speaker at that link pronounces it more like ['tʃɛ za re], which is a difference that will be lost on 99.9999% of an English-speaking audience.
I recall the BBC’s 1981 version of The Borgias and there was this same variation. Adolfo Celi’s performance and accent (apparently he learned his English lines phonetically) came in for particular criticism.
You think I would apply different rules to productions in other languages?
Well, I would not.
Nonsense. The only party due such courtesy is the audience whose language
the work is composed in. They are the ones buying the tickets, aren’t they?
There may be a few random versions where an Anglo audience might be as
familiar with the foreign as the English, such as Pierre and Pedro (but not Pyotor).
In such cases the foreign may be used since it will not mystify the paying customers.
I doubt the ghost of Thomas Jefferson (did he expect the locals to call him
TOMas while he was over there?) would be upset if his name were pronounced
as in French in a French movie. I am sure I would not be.
And since we are dealing with French now, you do not seriously propose that
English-language productions need to change over from Joan of Arc to Zhon DAR,
do you? How about Charles to SHARL as in Gen. DeGaulle?
Names in Movie/TV production should be pronounced as by their listeners,
who if English speakers would have no fricken idea what the Anglisized version
cheZArey and CHEZZuhray might be.
