Putin

[Chris F Waigl]

Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> 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
>
>
>

I'm with Languagehat on this. The "prostitute" laugh relies on noting
that if you transliterated the name the English or German way (and *not*
the French way), and then pronounced the result the French way, it would
sound like a taboo term. Well, yes.

Chris Waigl

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