±«Óãtv

A guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the ±«Óãtv Pronunciation Unit.

For defeated centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, the pronunciation is fraa(ng)-SWAA bigh-ROO. Ségolène Royal is say-go-LEN rwaa-YAL - we don't anglicise it to "roy-AL".

For Nicolas Sarkozy we recommend nee-ko-LAA sar-koh-ZEE, preserving stress on the last syllable in line with our usual treatment for French. This surname is pronounced in a variety of ways in France, perhaps because of its Hungarian origins (the Hungarian surname Sárközy is pronounced SHAR-koe-zi - oe as in French "coeur"), but our research suggests that sar-koh-ZEE is the most widespread and most appropriate pronunciation for M Nicolas.

In particular, people we consulted on this particular name in the French Embassy and in ±«Óãtv's team of French monitors strongly disliked the "cozy" pronunciation with stress on the middle syllable, even in English-speaking contexts.

(For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.)

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