anton Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Well, I constantly encounter conversation with some so-called watch "experts", and here is a composite of some errors I've come across...coming from the most novice of aficionados to expert salespeople to appraisers! Brand...................Error.....................Correct Pronounciation TAG Heuer............TAG Hew-er..............TAG Hoy-er Panerai.................Pan-er-ray................Pan-er-eye ETA......................E-T-A........................Etta Breitling................Brayt-ling/Brit-ling.....Bright-ling Patek Philippe.......Pah-teek Philippe........Pah-tech Philippe Montblanc.............Mont-blank..................Mon-blah-nk Hublot..................Hugh-Blot...................Hugh-Bloh Whenever I'm at the AD, I laugh to myself when "trained" salespeople say the names of brands like this. But I always refrain myself from correcting them. One time I did, they treated me hostile! And please, throw in your experienced error! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desuetude Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 And please, throw in your experienced error! Jaquet Droz.....Ja-qu-ette Drahz (draz...etc)....Jhackay Dro Man, I suck at typing out the wonked and proper pronunciations phonetically. I think people get the idea though This one always gets to me...ADs and WISes alike mispronounce this one...I just chuckle to myself, and quickly begin referring to it as a JD so I don't really start laughing! That said, it's easy since plenty of people don't know the brand, so I'm mostly asked what I'm wearing, which then allows me to tell the person in question how to properly pronounce it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Another fantastic thread, Anton! I think I've seen one or two like it here, but it's always good to refresh our pronunciations. Here is my beloved Sssurfer's pronunciation guide to Panerai-related words (mp3): http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=1729 From Gemnation -- using English phonetics: EXAMPLE - Yankee: Yang-KEY. Audemars Piguet: OH-duh-MAHR PEA-GAY A. Lange & Sohne: AH Lung-Geh Oohnt Sew-neh Baume & Mercier: bohm AY mer-SEE-AY Bedat: bid-UT Blancpain: blunk-PAN Breguet: breh-GAY Breitling: brEYE-tling Bulgari: bull-gar-EE Cartier: Car-TEA-AY Chopard: Show-Par Concord: Con-cord Corum: Core-oom Ebel: AY-bell Franck Muller: Fronk MEW-ler Glashutte: Glass-WHO-tuh Girard-Perregaux: Jee-rar Pear-ago Hublot: OOH-blow IWC: EYE-DOUBLE-YOU-SEE Jaeger-LeCoultre: YAY-ger Le-Cool-ter Longines: Lonn-JEAN Movado: Moe-vah-doh Omega: Oh-MAY-ga Oris: Oris Panerai: Pun-a-rye Parmigiani: Par-mi-GEE-ah-NEE Patek Philippe: Pah-tek Fee-LEAP Philippe Charriol: Fee-LEAP Shar-ee-ole Piaget: PEE-ah-JAY Rado: Rah-doe Raymond Weil: Ray-mand WHILE Richard Mille: REE-Shar MEAL Rolex: Row-Lex TAG Heuer: Tahg Hoy-er Ulysse Nardin: YOU-lis Nur-den Vacheron Constantin: Va-sher-own Cone-Stun-tuhn Zenith: ZEE-nith EDIT: Unfortunately, we English-speakers have a tendency to add an "ay" sound to Latin names. Breguet above is thus not Breh-GAY and Cartier is not Car-tee-AY, but (difficult to render this correctly, because it's said FAST): Breh-geh Carrr-tee-eh Just note that in French, the tendency is to pronounce the last syllable, whereas in English the default is on the first. Don't feel embarrassed to pronounce something "right" because it sounds affected. Tangentially, when I was at my local Blockbusters, I heard a man ask if Denzel Washington's film was out yet, pronouncing Dej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narikaa Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Perhaps the Asian pronunciation (as used at source) would be more edifying...certainly more amusing!!! I recall TTK & I looking blankly at each other while an excited lady supplier in Bangkok waved and shouted repeatedly 'Have Hoo-lops!'. It was a while before we realised she didnt have something contageous, but finally had the Hublots we'd been asking her for weeks to get !! Others you might need to know: Lolecks Oh,mee-gar Fank ko-lum Bi-tling Boobalee Dee-on What fun we have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssurfer Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 my beloved Sssurfer heartily reciprocated, V. And congrats on your guide! Lolecks Oh,mee-gar Fank ko-lum Bi-tling Boobalee Dee-on What fun we have! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anton Posted October 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Perhaps the Asian pronunciation (as used at source) would be more edifying...certainly more amusing!!! I recall TTK & I looking blankly at each other while an excited lady supplier in Bangkok waved and shouted repeatedly 'Have Hoo-lops!'. It was a while before we realised she didnt have something contageous, but finally had the Hublots we'd been asking her for weeks to get !! Others you might need to know: Lolecks Oh,mee-gar Fank ko-lum Bi-tling Boobalee Dee-on What fun we have! When you say Asian, what do you mean specifically? Surely, you can't mean that EVERYONE in the Asian (and for you UK readers I mean East Asian and/or SE Asian) region pronounces it this way? @ Vbarrett: IWC: EYE-DOUBLE-YOU-SEE If you can't pronounce an acronym, then you have no business purchasing any kind of watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narikaa Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Surely, you can't mean that EVERYONE in the Asian region pronounces it this way? Just the ones at source :cc_chinese: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corgi Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Patek Philippe: Pah-tek Fee-LEAP I beg to differ. There was an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" a few years ago where she was looking through expensive items celebrities enjoy purchasing. Anyway, some representative from PP came down and showed her a few watches. Oprah remarked that she alwasy pronounced it "Paah-tek PHILLIP" The man replied that it was "Pah-Tek Feel - ee - pay" To this day I will not forget that episode and I wish I had taped it because I think she actually dropped the watch at one point. But back then for me all watches were the same!! "I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WAS "PA-TEK-PHIL-LIP" "No. It's not." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmeister Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 How about: ebauche tourbillon perlage rehaut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 (edited) "Rolex?" "Oh-Mee-ga..." Edited October 6, 2007 by TeeJay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephane Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 How about saying it in french ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Breguet is pronounced differently to every suggestion I've seen here. As far as I can tell, it's pronounced Bruh-Geh with emphasis on neither syllable. Oh, and Blancpain is pronounced Mother's Pride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anton Posted October 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Breguet is pronounced differently to every suggestion I've seen here. As far as I can tell, it's pronounced Bruh-Geh with emphasis on neither syllable. Oh, and Blancpain is pronounced Mother's Pride. I awlays thought "Breguet" was pronounced as "Bray-Zhay", not "Bray-U-Get" like a jeweler once said. Oh, and same jeweler said "Blahnk-Pain" for Blancpain when I assumed it was "Blahnk-Pahn" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssurfer Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Boys, life must be hard to you whose languages do not have a 1:1 (uhm... ok, 0.9:1) writing/pronounce relation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Boys, life must be hard to you whose languages do not have a 1:1 (uhm... ok, 0.9:1) writing/pronounce relation! You must be unfamiliar with IPA. ps. Blon(k)-Pa(ng). It means White Bread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kasigi Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 I find it quite amusing to see a whole thread about mispronounciation and pronounciation When it's actually MISPRONUNCIATION and PRONUNCIATION (sorry, the spelling of these particular words is a pet hate of mine). /edit - IPA to me means India Pale Ale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 (sorry, the spelling of these particular words is a pet hate of mine). How would you pronunce them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 i remember walking into a big watch store in Vegas... i asked if they carried Panerai (pan-er-eye) and the salesman looked at me like i was an idiot and said "its pronounced "pan-air-eee" the way you would say canary (the bird). I was like "uhm ok buddy" haha. My Italian buddy i was with started laughing at him. It was good. They were actually a Panerai AD, among other brands and their sales staff cant even pronounce the brand name, brutal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpops Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Jeager Lecoultre isn't pronounced YAY-ger Le-Cool-ter Listen to this: hxxp://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/professions.do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 I recall TTK & I looking blankly at each other while an excited lady supplier in Bangkok waved and shouted repeatedly 'Have Hoo-lops!'. It was a while before we realised she didnt have something contageous, but finally had the Hublots we'd been asking her for weeks to get !! ROTFLMAO!!! Considering one of those was for my mum, I suspect, thanks for the Hoo-lops!! Boobalee Bvlgari. :lol: When I read this, through our tears of laughter, my mother figured it out. She's a really un-PC lady who frequently calls our local Chinese restaurant to place a take-out order: "2 rarge Flied lice wi' chrim, plea" And by God if they don't have 2 large fried rice with shrimp waiting for her to pick up. EDIT: Read this back to her, and she said I forgot the 'rarge'. (Spare me if this shocks anyone. You think no one has ever made fun of her German accent. Lighten up people!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sssurfer Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 You must be unfamiliar with IPA. Surely I am. We have no need for an IPA here. What we write defines [almost] exactly how it must be pronounced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daytona4me Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 Deployment - Deployant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 Doesn't anyone remember this?.....http://www.chronometrie.com/watchsounds/watchsoundspage.htm Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anton Posted October 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 Doesn't anyone remember this?.....http://www.chronometrie.com/watchsounds/watchsoundspage.htm Ken ken, That's where I believe I got the basis for my topic. And don't forget, they review alot of movements! PS: I apologize if you were rated by me as a 'bad speller'; it was a trackpad mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt.watch.obsessive Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 I'm sorry, but pronouncing ETA as a word is like pronouncing IWC eye-wik. E-T-A for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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