[Ads-l] Misnderstanding "Don Quijote"

[Marc Sacks]

Also in the unpronounceable spelling department:

A couple of months ago I was at a translators' panel at the Edinburgh Book
Festival. One of the panelists was Frank Wynne, described as a translator
of many French authors, including somebody called Wellbeck. That didn't
sound very French to me, but eventually I figured out that this odd name
referred to Michel Houellebecq. I thanked Wynne for clearing up for me the
name of that writer I could never either spell or pronounce.

Pronouncing "Don Quixote" seems straightforward by comparison.

--Marc Sacks

On Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 6:51 PM W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Misnderstanding "Don Quijote"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <Don Quixote> [don KWICK-sit], was standard (UK?) variant, IIRC. Cf.
> <quixotic> [kwick-SAH-tick]. (Never heard [*key-HOE-tick, *key-HAH-tick])
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org