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Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Oct. 30 2001, 16:54 For all of you French-speaking people out there: How do you pronounce the surname of Camille Saint-Saëns? And does Saint-Saëns mean anything? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

TimHighfield Group: Members Posts: 543 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Nov. 09 2001, 23:08 I'm not French, but I, and some others, pronounce "Saint-Saëns" as "Son-Son" (that's how it sounds anyway (Son like in Sondela, not like in Father and Son), and is probably simplified a bit). And it's also probably wrong . -Tim- I'd use phonetics, but I can't be sure of using the right symbols. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Nov. 10 2001, 14:37 I'd have said it more like 'sant say-en' (something roughly along those lines). I'd think it was the name of a saint (a bit like you get Bridget St John and so on), but I'd not know whether there's an English equivalent or not... Back to top

dgcaer Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: Dec. 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 10:40 I talk french and I have to say that I don't know how to pronounce that. "Camille" is OK and "Saint" too, but "Saëns" is problematic. If i follow the logic, I think that we can say something like "Sa-insse". The phonetic is "Sa˜es" (with the ˜ above the e) Kamij s˜e-sa˜es You have to know phonetic to read that ! Not very easy. Back to top

dgcaer Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: Dec. 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 10:43 The system is not friendly for the special caracters. The "e" is not "e" but a "3" inverted. Back to top

dgcaer Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: Dec. 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 10:58 The surname Saint-Saëns is like other surname in french, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Armand, etc. Also like many many many small city in France and in Quebec. Saint-Paul, Sainte-Chloé, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Louis, Sainte-Bernadette, Saint-Gabriel, etc. etc etc. The equivalent in espagnol is San, Santa, Santo (like San Francisco)and in English, Sant. You have equivalent in other language. Saëns was surely an historic person who was canonised. Not more than that. Back to top

Hillbilly Group: Members Posts: 51 Joined: June 2001 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 11:19 Quote Kamij s˜e-sa˜es I just looked up Saint-Saëns in an encyclopedia (Swedish) and the pronounciation is given as [s~es~a:s], that is like French "saint sans" with the final s pronounced. In fact, this is what I guessed but without the "s" in the end. Obviously the trema symbol (¨) isn't always used the way it's meant to... Back to top

dgcaer Group: Members Posts: 72 Joined: Dec. 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 12:46 Hillbilly, your encyclopedia is surely better than me. The french language isn't easy with is millions of grammar exceptions. A french cannot spell all the french word!!! As you say, the trema here is not pronounced. So why is it there? Probably because this name come from another language. So the phonetic is Kamij s~es~a:s (the "e" should be a "3" inverted too) Question : What is the function of the ":" in the pronounciation ? I don't understand his function if we have to say "saint-sans". Back to top

Olivier Group: Super Admins Posts: 1868 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 15:42 I'm French and pronounce it "sensans" (without pronouncing the 'n' in 'sen'). So far, I've never wondered if it was right or not, because I always heard it like that (but I didn't heard it a lot). Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 17:34 Thanx everyone. dgcaer: don't worry about that phonetics thing. I studied phonetics at the university. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Nov. 12 2001, 18:00 P.S. My Treccani (Italian) encyclopedia says Se~ Sãns [the first ~ is of course supposed to be over the E... ]. I was somewhat foolish not to look in there before starting this whole topic... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

ChiRho Group: Members Posts: 195 Joined: Feb. 2001 Posted: Nov. 22 2001, 06:31 Quote Camille Saint Saëns was racked with pains, When people addressed him as "Saint Saynes" (clue - for non-English-first-lanugage-speakers, this little ditty rhymes) The Saint is a standard French Saint, and the Saëns is almost identical to "sans", so it might be "sahn sohn" as it were HTH (or HTBONHW) --XP http://www.chirho.i12.com/ -------------- <P>Mr. ChiRho Email to chirho@mine.nu.almost (guess what drops) Visit ChiRho Network Central [URL=http://www.chirho.i12.com/]http://www.chirho.mine.nu/[/URL] Check the forums (topic suggestions still welcome[URL=http://forum.chirho.mine.nu/]http://forum.chirho.mine.nu/[/URL] Back to top

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