Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner So, how do YOU pronounce Poulenc?

People seem to fight about this as though it's life or death, and everyone on both sides is equally convinced of their own pronounciation.

Pou-LANK (rhymes with "rank" or "stank")

or

Poul-LONGC (rhymes with Long-k or honk)

The second way.

I wasn't aware of any controversy (or any con TROV er sy, even :p ).

Steven

Ha!

In high school, my piano teacher pronounced it Pou-LONGC. Then when I got to college, my professor corrected me by saying POU-lank, which is the way to say a word like "Poulenc" in French.

Then, just last month, I ran into a person who actually knew Francis Poulenc, and he said it's Pou-LONGC.

Don't even get me started on Alberto Ginastera.

jee-nah-STEH-ra.

Tomasino

toe-ma-SEE-no

When I was just beginning the piano I read "Chopin" as "cho-pin", that is, perfectly phonetically, starting with a "ch" for "ch"ess, so I read it as "choping" with more "in" at the end instead of the "inG".

Now, of course I pronounce it right . . . but when reading (not out loud obviously) I think I still read it as I did before, but am unsure because I can never quite remember once I've read it, and if I read it conciously then I'm too aware to misread it . . . but I think I read it as I did before.

Actually I must do, because I think I say it out loud like that when I'm nervous.


"Hopinmad" does not help!

Poulen... drop the C? Thats how I would pronounce it.

Matt

Final consonants in French words (names) are usually silent, except for C, R, F, and L.
Some notable exceptions :

Herold
Berlioz
Saint-Saëns
Hahn

Regards,

Poolonk! with the stress on the lonk.

The French Larousse dictionary - a good authority - gives the correction pronunciation in the IPA as [pu lÉ›~nk], and as closely as I can transliterate it, it is :

Poo lank, accent on the last syllable.

The Petit Robert, Dictionnaire universel des noms propres confirms this pronunciation.

Regards,

It is (IPA: [pulɛ̃k])
where the /ɛ̃/ is a nasalized short e, similar to the e in the english word 'bet' only nasalized

Poo - lenk

Dang, I've been using the wrong vowel! I had assumed that it was the same as in sans or France, when in reality it's the one in cinq (or Chopin!).

I didn't consider that en sometimes goes both ways: vendredi, comprend ... vs. rien, bien, chien. But not usually, n'est-ce pas, Bruce? Isn't it typically represented by in or ain and not by en other than in the combination ien?

I will now Anglicize Poulenc to "poo LANK" rather than "poo LAHNK."

Thanks, you guys. I love both French and phonology!

Steven

In the US, people make a point of Americanizing
French words, indeed do it with a vengence.
Pronouncing French words with authentic
French pronunciation is considered improper
in the US. I've never heard it pronounced,
but by US standards, it would be pronounced
as though it were an English word, thus:
"poo-LENK," or "POO-lenk," with the "len"
pronounced like the "len" in "length."

I detest the way Chopin is pronounced in the US . . . that accent on the second syllable is horrible!

I'd like to see someone try to type out how to pronounce the distinctive French "k" sound.

That's not typical, though it could be regional. I don't think I've ever heard Chopin pronounced in English with the second syllable stressed.

Steven

I hope you're not too stressed to learn that in French, names are invariably pronounced with the accent on the last syllable. One could say, then, that Americans pronouncing Chopin's name with the accent on the last syllable are just emulating correct pronunciation.

Cho.pin.
Ra.cine
Bau.de.laire
Saint Saëns
Boil.dieu
Ra.meau
Char.pen.tier
etc.,
etc.,

Regards,

Add Bizet and Ravel to Bruce's list.

Honestly, when I hear a person say "SHOW-pan," I immediately think that he or she has no real musical knowledge.

I resemble that remark! (I give both syllables almost equal weight, actually, with a slight emphasis on the first.)

Do folks in your neck of the woods really say "show-PAN"?

FWIW, it's always worth considering that variations reflect regional differences as easily as educational ones.

Steven

Where Americanized French is concerned, my favorite is a small town in Missouri near where I grew up called "Bois d'arc."

Anybody want to guess how we said it in Missouri?

The stress on most French words, including names, is more or less equal. If one simply must stress one syllable over another, the last one is the one which receives the stress.

SHOW-pan is not right. But certainly neither is show-PAN, with an obvious accent.