brought to you by some of my classmates in film school

[jmtorres]

Poll #4485 pronunciation

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

How do you pronounce the word "denouement"?

View Answers

DAY-new-mon
27 (55.1%)

duh-NOW-mint
6 (12.2%)

some other way which I will explain in comments
16 (32.7%)

What region are you from that most defines your speech patterns?

View Answers

I can't figure out if I'm being snooty because I took a lot of French in school or if my classmates are philistines. Hmm. Is "philistine" a culturally insensitive insult or is it okay that it's been repurposed since they are not an extant ethnic group? Serious question.

ETA: ahahaha. Between forvo and dictionary.com I have found support for ANY of the three syllables being the emphasis syllable in English.

Comments

[zvi]

Your classmates are philistines.

[cathexys]

I think i tend to add a syllable, like you in No 1 but with an added -e. But then New Orleans has half the time 4 syllables when i pronounce it :)

[sasha_feather]

I have read this word a LOT more than I've heard it pronounced. I would probably attempt to say it, "day-NEW-mint". I speak no French whatsoever.

[raine]

I don't think it's just region; who taught you and how you learned makes a difference -- my mom taught herself to speak English (it's her fourth language) by reading a dictionary, so when it came time to teach me, her pronunciation and tendency toward phonetics heavily influence the way I pronounce my words today. I've also lived in the Philippines, the Midwest, the South, and now I'm in the Pacific NW; anywhere I've lived, I've been marked as "different". :-)

[synecdochic]

Closer to the first, but with the accent on the last syllable.

[alexseanchai]

day-new-MAW. I blame the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

[blueraccoon]

*points up* what she said, although I voted for option #1.

[mjules]

I don't know that I've ever heard the word said out loud, so I don't actually have a pronunciation for it.

However! I have seriously asked that question re: philistines before. The consensus of my friends at the time was that since they no longer exist, it's okay. I'm still pondering.

[sage]

yes, this. day-new-MON, only the last N isn't really all there.

This is how my high school English teachers drilled it into us.

[pommery]

Erm... 'Den-You-Mon', Though I don't think I ever heard it out loud before, and any french I know is largely influenced by a rural Acadian dialect, also known as Nana.
:)

[laurashapiro]

Me too.

[niqaeli]

DUH-new-muhn, I think, so *roughly* half way between the two, but more towards the first. Which is not how I'd pronounce it if I were trying for a French pronunciation of it, but is how I'd go for it in English.

English's relationship to French is particularly interesting because you had the Norman and Anglo-Saxon mashup, a few hundred years, and then we have all the un-Englishified-in-spelling-and-sometimes-pronunciation French borrow-words. Which account for a not insignificant chunk of our wacky 3% of non-phonetically pronounced words.

[maevele]

I am the only philistine here so far then.

[viridian5]

Being one of those people who reads a lot of words a lot more than I hear them, my personal version is "DAY-new-Ā-mon." I've lived in New York City, northeastern Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh.

[kymellin]

To be technical, I actually pronounce it deh-NOW-mehnt, probably because I associate the spelling with the word "denounce".

[verity]

day-NEW-ment

and yes, I know that's not how it's supposed to be pronounced. I'm not sure if this is the byproduct of learning to read before I heard a lot of a words or if I just grew up hearing it pronounced that way. Probably some combination of both.

[lferion]

Deh-nu-MWAH

:-)

[dragonfly]

day-new-MAH

I doubt "philistine" would insult anyone living on behalf of their ethnic group. There is, however, increasing archaeological evidence that the Philistines were cultured, civilized and artistic -- the opposite of how we use the term.

[aris_tgd]

Aaaand what she said again. I voted for "other" as well.

via network

[softestbullet]

"duh-NEW-min"

Haha, oh no, that's completely wrong. :( I've never heard it out loud, so that's just what I made up.

*slinks away*

[fairestcat]

I'll be a philistine with you!

[gelasius]

I chose #1, but like several of the above, it's more like day-new-MO(n).

[rydra_wong]

Duh-NOO-mont.

This is what I get for acquiring most of my vocabulary from reading; some of my pronunciation can be very arbitrary.

[ide_cyan]

I pronounce it in French.

[copracat]

Oops. I put my pronunciation in the comment for location. I'm Australian.

[zulu]

Me too!

[ide_cyan]

It's my first language, though. You're from Canada, too?

[zulu]

Yep, though I'm one of those Western anglophone types. Functionally bilingual, I'd estimate; I was in full immersion from kindergarten onwards.

[ide_cyan]

I had an English intensive semester in 6th grade & kept practicing a lot by falling into Dr Who & other fandoms.

[torachan]

I don't think I've ever heard it out loud.

In my head when reading it, I say de-NEW-mint (the de is between day and duh, more like d'new). tbh it's not a word I've seen in print all that much, either.

[jenna_thorn]

nu-Wah-lens.

Three syllables.

8-) Hi!

[cathexys]

Well, yes. That's one of the more typical pronunciations (other than the non-local emphasis on the last syllable and the N'awlins two syllable one). That's why i thought it noteworthy that my husband's family (LA north of NOLA) pronounces the -e in Orleans, thus making it 4 syllables.

[cathexys]

And hi :)

[jmtorres]

I was using "uh" to stand in for the schwa, which is particularly hard to represent without using IPA. *nods*

[ktnb]

I've always heard it day-new-MON in Virginia.