To those new to watches: Pronunciation Guide
watchtime.com/reference-center/watch-brand-pr...
watchtime.comPosted Sep 9, 2012, 6:16 PM UTC
9062
watchtime.comNative french speaker here, many of these brands are French/French Swiss and these pronunciations are the name brands basically pronounced with an English American accent.
If the goal of having a pronunciation guide is to be able to pronounce correctly, I don't know why these would be pronounced in English if they are French names. It kind of renders the whole objective obsolete. There's also the fact that if you pronounce these brands like this to French speakers, they will most probably cringe quite evidently.
This leads me to suspect that this is some sort of evil joke to make prospective wealthy watchbuyers sound like wannabe snob ignoramuses.
edit: I just listened to the audio guide in the top comment and it is much more precise than the written-form from OP's link
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Not really. Better to use the above pronunciation than one you come up with. I have a background in french, but as I said above I needed a dealer to help me out with one or two I didn't get.
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Not to be snobbish, but if you walked into a luxury watch store in Switzerland and said "I'm looking for a Lawn-jeen", they would probably show you the door.
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First of all many many luxury watch stores are horribly snobbish. Kind of ridiculous considering they're just salesmen and don't make enough to afford many of the pieces they're selling.
Second better lawn-jeen than Lon-Gines or whatever other pronunciation people are capable of coming up with on their own. Notice how the former is more accurate than the latter.
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As a Canadian who was forced to learn french at a young age Most of these pronunciations are natural for me.
My Dad: Jagger le culture has some nice watches Me: zhay-gur-le-coolshiure! And yes they are nice.
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There's actually not one universally accepted pronunciation for Jaeger-LeCoultre due to regional accent and how words change pronunciation when they are spoken by speakers of different languages. If you call up JLC, they answer the phone differently depending which country you're calling.
The wonkiest one I heard was something that was close to "jay-jay - le-coo".
Americans sometimes seem to call it "Yay-ger" for some reason, even though it's not correct. I think it's because it seems stranger and more exotic, so you must know what you're talking about if you pronounce it so unnaturally. "Yay-ger" would be right if they were German, which they aren't.
JLC's in Le Sentier, which is a French speaking region, and "Edmond Jaeger" for whom the company is named was from France.
But at any rate, the first phoneme in "Jaeger-LeCoultre" is supposed "zh", but sometimes becomes the normal "hard j" when spoken by English speakers.
I'm actually not sure how "Jaeger-LeCoultre" is pronounced in Germany, but I could accept that it's pronounced "Yay-ger" there.
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"jay-jay - le-coo"
I think this should be the official r/watches pronunciation of Jaeger-LeCoultre.
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The thing with "Jaeger-LeCoultre," as you semi-point out, is that Mr. Jaeger was a Frenchman with a German last name.
I took both German and French in college, so I just can't help but pronounce it as [ˈjɛːɡɐle'cultʁe]. If somebody tells me anything funny for pronouncing "Jaeger" as in German, I tell them screw you, I most likely speak more languages than you do. (Or alternatively: "moé chu po un maudzit français, 'stsi...")
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Pah pire, pah pire..A bit off but close on the z french.
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Oh okay, I was just thinking that it was pronounced the way I said before because of "Haute-Couture"
edit: neat TIL btw
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I have a vintage LeCoultre, and have heard many varying pronunciations. The funniest was Lay COO Tray. What's the ideal way to say it?
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Speaking in English, I think "le-kool-tre" is the most correct, because it's closest to how its pronounced in its home region. (Le Sentier)
I usually pronounce it like in the OP's linked pronunciation guide, because I'm lazy.
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Not sure if I'm reading your pronunciation correctly, but here's something I recently learned thanks to another redditor!
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oops, I guess I always read the "Coulture" part wrong. I'll make sure to say "le-cult" from now on, thanks!
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Don't forget the R sound in the end.
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its funny. Living in Canada and knowing French you take knowing this stuff for granted. I laugh at how most of my American friends pronounce stuff like this. But then I remember they dont have the same education. Spanish however they have me at a loss. I can basically order from a menu and I know when to run...
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Fellow Canadian? High five! But yeah, I have a lot of American family and friends (from camp) and it is quite funny, they say "Kwe-bec" and I have to tell them it's "Ke-bec" with a hard e. I'm pretty good at pronouncing stuff In other languages (I can read hebrew so that helps with the phoenitics of some languages), I was probably the only person I knew who could pronounce ejafjalajokul (that volcano that erupted a while ago), it's ey-yaf-yalla-yokel.
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Audemars Piguet AWE duh mahr PEE gay
6th grade me would've had a field day with that one.
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As someone with a bit of knowledge of English and French, many of those are wrong. Some of those comically wrong, which makes me believe this is an intricate joke.
Audemars Piguet
Breguet
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Cartier
Hublot
Longines
Maurice Lacroix
Piaget
All wrong
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It's difficult to convey pronunciation in another language. They're wrong based on how you say them, but I feel they give the layman a taste of what french pronunciation is like.
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Check out the FAQ for more
Edit: or zanonymous's post
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The syllabic stress in the French names in this guide is systematically wrong.
I'd say: screw this shit. If you don't know French or German, you don't know them. If you don't know how to pronounce these names, you don't know how to, and just admit it. It's not that important. Except to assholes, and screw assholes. Not necessarily literally, not that's there's anything wrong with that.
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As a French speaker, I really had a good laugh reading this guide, most of the brand names are simply slaughtered, from where I stand I think it would be safer to completely ignore this guide.
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At first I thought the Hublot one was a joke...
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That awkward moment when you try to buy a watch but end up accidentally propositioning someone.
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"Who blow?"
"Hublot."
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Longines...wow, I was totally off!
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And if you follow that site, you'll still be.
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I very vividly remember a commercial pronouncing it LONG-ee-Ness though, so that may be why it seems so different.
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The correct pronounciation would be closer to LON GEE NE
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I remember reading somewhere that TAG, which stands for Techniques d'Avant Garde, is supposed to be read in French, just like here, and not like this. And Heuer is supposed to be read in German because the name has German descent, not French.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Saying TAG with a French or German accent is basically the same sound.
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Now if only it had parts and complications. I pronounced tourbillon "toor bill onn"
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I have always wondered how tourbillon is pronounced. I have always said "tour bee onh"
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That's correct
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The correct way of saying it is the way sanchezman suggested: "tour bee onh"
As a reference, check this http://translate.google.com/#fr/en/tourbillon
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Yeah I figured that out after a while haha.
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Well shit; i learned a lot. Thanks OP!
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NP, the best way is to go into a dealer and have a conversation on brands. That's how I learned it.
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Yeah, but now ill look like less of a tasteless American dope when i do!
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Thank you for this!
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I've been pronouncing Hublot and Tissot wrong for a long time.
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While Tissot is decent, if you follow the pronunciation for Hublot that is on that site, you'll continue to say it wrong.
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Hublot
is still wrong. it should be more like "oo-bloh"
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It's missing the hardest one: Stowa.
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From a short websearch I found this, which others confirmed is correct
interesting question... I searched a bit around about phonetic signs, and it should be
['ʃtovaː]
Here are my descriptions:
ʃ - like in dish
t - like in time
o - you don't have this in english... similar to "more"
v - like in heaven
a - like in hut, but long
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I've always pronounced "Jaeger-LeCoultre" the same way I'd pronounce Jagermeister, with a "Yay" sound. As in "Chuck Jaeger-LeCoultre".
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Went into an AD and I asked to look at the Longines and pronounced it "Lon jeans". The AD dealer just gave me this look like I was an idiot. I had to repeat myself multiple times then she finally said, "oh you mean lon gynes".
Went to another AD and asked to see the "lon gynes". The dealer just gave me this look like I was an idiot and said, the "Lon jeans" are over there.
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Nice.
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There's actually a pronunciation guide with audio files so you can hear someone speaking the names.
link
"This is bloody good!!"
haha I guess that means Rolex.
I had been pronouncing wrong all these years.
Random Trivia: "Rolex" is a completely made up name, chosen because it was easily pronounceable by speakers in many languages.
The only popular language that I know of that can't really pronounce Rolex properly is is Japanese, because there's no "L" sound in Japanese.
Now you are making me say it without the L lol. Roex
That scared the shit out of me.
I only listened to Jaeger LeCoutre and it is wrong.
That is pretty wrong. (JLC and Piguet being two examples.) The OP is also a bit wrong.
The AP pronunciation is correct.
No. Stresses are on the wrong syllables (both in the OP and zanonymous's link).
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Came to post this. This is quite resourceful.