Whenever I hear anyone mention Don Quixote, they put the break between the two words in the middle of "Quixote" rather than between the actual words. They pronounce it as "Donkey Ho-tee", not "Don Key-ho-tee". What's the deal with that?
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Whenever I hear anyone mention Don Quixote, they put the break between the two words in the middle of "Quixote" rather than between the actual words. They pronounce it as "Donkey Ho-tee", not "Don Key-ho-tee". What's the deal with that?
Well I must be doing something wrong. It is Don Key-O-tee to me.
I minored in Spanish in college, and even when a native speaker says it, it sounds closest to "DON-key HO-tay." It's just natural to the rhythm of the language.
I say "Dawn Key-hotay" although my dad heard "Dawn Key-shot" in Spain. What's the story with that ?
Possibly a regional thing? I've only heard it "Don Kay-o-tee".
This. And I have never heard the last syllable pronounced as "tee". Y'all know that's not right, right? :???:Quote:
Originally posted by OneCentStamp
I do know that it's "Don Quichotte" (pronounced more or less [d~ɔkiʃɔt]) in French. Maybe this "sh" ([ʃ]) sound is an older pronounciation.Quote:
Originally posted by An Gadaí
Yeah, I can't say that I've ever heard it "tee" either. "DON-key HO-tay" is how I've always heard it.Quote:
Originally posted by Myrnalene
As you may already be aware, Spanish, unlike English, really only has 5 vowel sounds: ah, ay, ee, oh , and ooh*. It would be an unusual dialect indeed that would pronounce it -tee. (Although there may be one. I don't know.) As for the break, well, you will find if you listen to recordings of English that very few people insert the breaks between words. Nobody enunciates them that clearly and most peoplekindaslurev'rythingtogether. Your ear is trained to pull out the most likely sounding words from the mishmash and you hear the sentence. (Of course, this fails sometimes and leads to those hilarious bits that everyone has: "Can you get the phone?" "My brother is a comb?" "You've changed your name to Sloan?" Ah ha ha.) So I suspect that what's happening with Don Quixote is that you recognize where the divide should be and are expecting your ears to treat what is a Spanish phrase as if it were English and the wires get crossed.
*Ah, ay, ee, oh, ooh; mi burro sabe mas que tu.
It seems to me that many English speakers struggle with the 'x' (/x/ in modern spanish) or at least make a conscious effort to pronounce it a certain way. The slightest bit of hesitation before a stressed syllable and you have a perceived break.
As far as I know it is. That's also the standard pronunciation here, although that is probably more French influence than conscious historical accuracy.Quote:
Originally posted by Obelix
I expect the tee rather than tay that I was used to hearing (in and about Oakville, Ontario) would have arisen out of folks pronouncing it as it was spelled, rather than as it was pronounced by Spanish speakers. Back then that town was very English, with few people from other cultures (in the schools I attended, I can only recall two Italian families, two German families, one French Canadian family, one aboriginal Canadian family, one individual Jamacian, and one individual East Indian, but no Spanish or Latin American people at all. We had field trips to Kensington in Toronto to see people from other cultures -- seriously.) Unfortunately, pronunciaton tools don't always help, for example, Dictionary.com has a little button that lets you hear pronunciations, but they go with tee rather than tay, leaving you with a popular pronounciation that is based on a mis-pronunciation.
Where I am now northwestern Ontario near Minnesota, I come across folks pronouncing French words how they are spelled. For example, folks in northern Minnesota pronounce the Brule River as Brewl, rather than Broolay which is how the name is pronounced in French (the river was named after a French explorer), but when I look up the audio pronunciation in Dictionary.com, it gives the correct French pronunciation, rather than what people in the area of the river actually say.
My own name pre-dates the great vowel shift, resulting in the pronunciation not matching the spelling. That got me kicked out of grade one back to kindergarten because the teacher was of the opinion that I could not spell my name properly.
You can't win for trying. :smack
It is. When Cervantes wrote it the guy was named /ki'ʃote/ (roughly, kee-SHOW-tay). The modern pronunciation with the velar fricative, /ki'xote/ (roughly, key-HO-tay but with more friction on the H), is the result of later phonetic changes. The French and Italian versions of the name still retain the original /ʃ/ sound.Quote:
Originally posted by Obelix
I thought this thread would be about English speakers in England, who pronounce it Dawn Key-Hote. You know, like Don Juan is pronounced Dawn Ju-Wan.
Most people I've heard say "DON (not "dawn") key-HO-tee". I know it's not really pronounced with "tee" in Spanish, but there are countless Anglicizations like that. For example, Fayette county is pronounced "FAY-et", not "FIE-yet" like in French.
Marginally-related anecdote:
I dated a Puerto Rican girl for several years. She didn't have much of an accent, since she'd moved to the mainland when when was 7 (20+ years ago at the time). However, whenever she went back to Puerto Rico, her accent would come roaring back almost instantly.
Her cousins owned a rum distillery, and while we were there on a visit, my ex, her sister, and their grandmother considered driving out to see the distillery. They all kept talking about this "dawnqueue" brand rum (say it as one syllable, as fast as you can, with a Spanish accent - it almost sounds like "danke" or "achoo" with a d in the front).
It took me a half hour to figure out the brand name was "Don Q".
Interesting.
My former English Lit (he taught everything lit) professor:"Don Quick-Set"
Quasi
:: snort ::
Obvously, the correct American pronounciation is, "Don Quicks-Oh-Tee".
I always pronounced it "Diyet Pepsy", which I now see is way wrong.
Not if you were German.Quote:
Originally posted by Oliveloaf
(Referring of course to the name Diet Pepsi, not Donny Quickset!)
Oh, Og! Poor Cervantes! What must he be thinking?
I've often thought about Beethoven's ghost suddenly manifesting (it) himself in the middle of the 5th, and screaming, "Nein, NEIN, NEIN!
"It is dah-dah-dah-DAAAAAAHHHHH, das second time through, Ogverdammt!"
(Which actually is a point of contention, though the cite escapes me.)
Q