Prince Rainier III of Monaco has died. In keeping with Uncle Jazzbeau’s recent surfeit of obituaries, I blog this.
Posted by jim at April 6, 2005 01:20 PMThey're dead, Jim.
Posted by: MrBaliHai on April 6, 2005 01:55 PMSo how do you pronounce "Rainier"?
Posted by: language hat on April 7, 2005 07:11 AMWell, /'rEnjE/, but I've been hearing /rE'nE/ on the boob tube. Whenever I see it I think /'rajn@/. Et tu, Linguocuculle?
Posted by: jim on April 7, 2005 08:00 AMHey Jim, Adam checking in!!!
Posted by: Adam on April 7, 2005 12:25 PMI've always said /rey'nir/, but when my wife told me he'd died she called him /rE'nje/, and I thought "Well, that's probably much more accurate, but it never occurred to me to say it." I suppose my family must have used the Americanized pronunciation when I was growing up and I just never questioned it. I'll probably stick to it, too; if I tried to say "Prince RaiNYAY" it would sound as pretentious in my ears as if I were to say "Princess GRAHSS." Which is doubtless how the Monegasques say it.
Posted by: language hat on April 8, 2005 02:41 PMHunh, I say /'reInieI/, without any good enough reason. English 'rainy-er' with a French-ish infinitive /eI/.
And is the new prince /'ælbE@/ or /'ælb@t/, and is his sister /'kær@laIn/ or /kar@'li:n/?
Posted by: aput on April 11, 2005 12:00 PMI guess I said Princess Grace /'grejs/ because she was the actress, Grace Kelly. For Prince Albert, I'd probably approximate a French pronuciation.
Posted by: jim on April 12, 2005 08:57 AMHuh. Just looked up "Rainier III" in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate and found:
Pronunciation: rə-'nir, ra-, rā-
So they don't even provide a Frenchy-French form as an alternate! I guess I'm just a good American.