How do you exactly pronounce Argeneau?

Break it into 3 parts, Jill. Ar - ge - neau.

Ar - as in the word are.

ge - as in Zsa Zsa Gabor

neau - as in the word no

I'm still trying to talk mrs spice into doing the podcast so we can hear her speak these magic words.

Dave

Hey, Dave...

How do you pronounce "ton" as in the peerage in the regency historicals and others? Who made up the ton?
Are they still called that today?

I know that isn't an Argeneau question, but it does come up in a lot of historicals.

Secondly, exactly how is Lucern's name pronounced? Is it a soft /c/ sound...because that is how I say it...but when they call him "Luc" it makes me think "Luke."

wren

Apparently I can't spell in the early morning hours...see pronouciation in the subject line of my last post

wren

Thank you. I was saying it wrong in my head and I thought as much. Wren I can't spell either no matter what time day. A little ironic since I love to read.

Lucern is soft 'c' so it' sounds like 'loose - urn'

But 'Luke' is also correct for Luc, Perhaps with a slight suggestion of French on the letter 'u'.

As for 'ton', I don't think I've ever heard of it other than as a measure of weight. I'll probably have to ask mrs spice about that one.

Dave

In the Regency period, the ton was the high society and the word is pronounced same as the word "tone."

To be a member of the ton you had to be rich, well-born, and fashionable and you had to be all three. If you were a duke or duchess who spent all their time in the country and didn't concern yourself with fashion and society, you weren't a member of the ton no matter how rich and well-born. By the same token a merchant who was rich and dressed well and used proper manners couldn't be a member of the ton because he wasn't well-born.

The word was taken from the French "ton" which meant style.

And if I remember correctly, the haut ton was the top 1000 members of the ton, or something like that. The term "high-toned" is derived from haut ton.

Since were in the subject of pronounciation..how do you pronounce Marguerite? I got confused when i first read her story. Maybe its my subconcious telling me to read it like Margarite and that pretty much how i've been pronouncing it in my head. Same with Etienne.

Thank you, Connie!

wren

I pronounce Marguerite as Mar-gue-reet...with the accent on the first syllable, the /g/ being the hard sound followed by a long /u/ and the last syllable is kind of soft...you just flow into it... with the long /e/ sound in place of the letter i.

I'm not sure that is correct, but that is the way I've always heard it pronounced. I've known a couple of friends who named their daughters Marguerite.

Somewhere else we discussed how to pronounce Etienne...but I don't remember where. I'll try to find it for you, because I'm not sure I'll describe it correctly. Also, I pronounce it slightly different from the way it was described.

wren

Actually Wren I did a thread on:Question about pronouncing names in which I asked how to pronounce his name.


The infamous Mr. Spice replied:

Mr Spice



Feb 1st, 2008 - 10:59 AM Re: Question about pronouncing names

There are always big smiles at spice acres when the subject of names and their pronounciation arises.

The Argeneau names, for the most part, are pronounced as written, so A-T-N is pretty accurate for Etienne.


Hope this helps

C1- a fountain of info

Thanks Cindy,

That is the post I was thinking of...although I pronounce it E-T-N...with a short /e/ sound...that was the way I had always heard it before.

But...I don't speak French, so I'll leave it to those who know.

wren

wow.. thanks.. the explanation for ton will help me out on a crossword puzzle clue I always miss... just didn't make sense.. now it does!

As for Etienne, when I was reading it, it came out...


Eh-T-enne in my head VS. EhTeen which is how I pronounce Bastein...Bas-teen

Tracy. This topic was also on Question about pronouncing names Jan 31, 08 - 8:17 PM. There may be others there you might be interested in. Will bump up.