Re: Coup de grâce

Mon May 24 15:00:57 UTC 2004

How about the name of the German car Porsche being pronounced 'Porsh'?
BTW, I have never heard *coup de grâce* pronounced as anything other than [ku duh gra].
Fritz

>>> halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU 05/22/04 11:17AM >>>
Heard on NPR, 12 May:  the phrase *coup de grâce* pronounced [ku duh gra].  It
made me wonder how widespread it was to hear French phrases that have been
imported into English pronounced without their legitimate final consonants.  I
speculate that it's on the model of things like *grand prix* /grã pri/, where
the final consonant is legitimately not pronounced, which give people a feeling
that final consonants should not be pronounced in any word which they are
conscious is French.  Does anyone have any further examples or thoughts on
this?

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania