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Pronouncing French names in New Orleans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

George Wolf ,
Michèle Bocquillon ,
Debbie de la Houssaye ,
Phyllis Krzyzek ,
Clifton Meynard  and
Lisbeth Philip
George Wolf
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
Michèle Bocquillon
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
Debbie de la Houssaye
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
Phyllis Krzyzek
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
Clifton Meynard
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
Lisbeth Philip
Affiliation:
Department Of Foreign Languages, University of New OrleansNew Orleans, LA 70148
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Abstract

This article, based on 984 interviews with bearers of French names in the city of New Orleans, investigates the use of the notion of pronunciation as a device by which speakers manage their talk. The investigation proceeded primarily by eliciting ways in which people employ devices for talking about talk in everyday communicative interactions, as a means to manage various types of communicational phenomena and to deal with communication difficulties emerging from a clash of phonetic traditions. The result is a definition of pronunciation in terms which are used by a majority of speakers. An appendix gives a list of names, with comments by their bearers concerning ways in which those bearers would attempt to convey to mispronouncers the correct pronunciation of their names. (Pronunciation, lay metalanguage, folk-linguistics, phonology, phonetics, New Orleans, French names)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 407 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

REFERENCES

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