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#158997 04/23/06 12:12 PM
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I've been trying to figure out a way to explain how I pronounce gestion, but there just isn't an English equivalent to the initial G.

Have you seen the movie Gigi? The way Maurice Chevalier pronounces Gigi with the Gs being soft. That is how the initial G is pronounced.

G - like Gigi,
es - like the ess in "less"
ti - tee
on - like the on in "only."

#158998 04/23/06 01:11 PM
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It's called a voiced post-alveolar fricative /zh/. It's more common in French than in English. Like the second g in garage or the z in azure for some, but not all speakers. Best is a /zh/ like Faldo. Or use SAMPA /Z/ or Unicode (IPA) /ʒ/. Some use a z with a haček or caron /ž/. I see that many of the Unicode symbols no longer work with the new forum software.

Last edited by zmjezhd; 04/23/06 01:12 PM.
#158999 04/23/06 01:24 PM
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>>>voiced post-alveolar fricative

Wow zmj. I know exactly what they are saying when I read the article, but I admit that I'll never be able to remember the codes and letter representations to describe that again.

I think I'll stick with Maurice Chevalier's spoken example.

Last edited by belMarduk; 04/23/06 01:25 PM.
#159000 04/23/06 01:42 PM
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Works for me.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#159001 04/23/06 04:34 PM
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It'll be interesting to hear more about how you've encountered it
Not for the first time, I "extrapolated" from French, then looked it up in the OED. It is interesting to realize that this word, contrary to its derivatives, apparently suffered "extinction", driven out by management.

#159002 04/23/06 05:12 PM
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Quote:

It'll be interesting to hear more about how you've encountered it
Not for the first time, I "extrapolated" from French, then looked it up in the OED. It is interesting to realize that this word, contrary to its derivatives, apparently suffered "extinction", driven out by management.




Yeah, today's management calls this mass extinction of french words - verbal downsizing; this process goes on irrevocably and sublimatively.

Sorta like a bloodless ethnic cleansing

#159003 04/23/06 07:45 PM
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I think I'll stick with Maurice Chevalier's spoken example.

"Sank Heaven for leetel gehrls ..."

#159004 04/24/06 11:02 PM
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Now, now, you know he wouldn't have said heaven...more like heh-von

I loved his duet with Hermione Gingold in that movie. They sang "I remember it well", he with roguish heart and she, chiding smilingly with fondness. They played it well.

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