Pronunciation of Chamonix

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on January 13, 2013 at 7:26pm

Apparently ..... (well ,according to one of the posters in this SnowHeads website forum)

"Most French would call it sham-oh-knee but just to confuse matters chamoniards( natives from chamonix) call it sham-oh-nicks."

http://www.snowheads.co.uk/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=28326

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Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on January 13, 2013 at 9:21pm

hello

Yes, pronunciation in France may be different depending on the region where people live. Sometimes even depending on the town. And a lot of towns have names that may have  different pronunciations.

A lot of  French say the "x", but the residents from Chamonix and its region don't say the " x".

(but all French will say to you that the residents  from the Savoie  and Haute Savoie (where is Chamonix) have a very strong accent ... )

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on January 14, 2013 at 5:11am

This reminds me of the town of "Metz", commonly pronounced "mets", whereas denizens of the town will insist that it is pronounced "mèce" (like English "mess").

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Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on January 14, 2013 at 10:16am

yes, the difference is often with a final letter "S" or "Z" (that have a similar sound in french)

like Carpentras, pronounced "CarpentrA"   or "CarpentraSS".

but there are others

like Bourg-en-Bresse, sometimes we hear "Bour Ren bresse" and sometimes "bour QUen bresse"

it's the same thing for people's names

Marguerite Duras : DurA  or DuraSSSS

the ex-president Mitterand : "mi-tran" or "mi-té-ran"

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