Putin

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/5/07, Laurence Urdang <urdang at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Though scarcely an issue for the ADS, it occurs to me that you might be amused
> by the following:
> The pronunciation of President Putin's surname in French would normally be identical
> in pronunciation with that of putain 'prostitute,' so, some months ago I queried some
> French friends about it and was informed that to avoid any hint of unfriendliness, his
> name in French is pronounced "poo-TEEN."

William Safire devoted an "On Language" column to this in 2005:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/03/opinion/saf4.php

Languagehat, however, questioned the accuracy of Safire's analysis:

http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001825.php


--Ben Zimmer

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