Pronunciation of place names

[Skipman]

Am sure we've been here before. Today I was speaking with a chap from Belgium and got round to talking about how to pronounce some of the villages we all recognize from WW1. He is from Ghent but knows the Flanders area well and France. Wasn't near my computer so was trying to think of some of the villages. His answers were very interesting and he added some other interesting snippets.

Dunkirk is pronounced as we all pronounce it and he mentioned that it means The Church in the dunes. That makes sense

Gheluvelt is pronounced Cheluvelt as in the Scottish 'ch' in loch and the 'e' like you would say prAY

Hazebrouck is pronounced azebrouck silent 'H' and means 'The trousers of the hair' assume brouck as in Scottish 'breeks'

Steenbeek pronounced as it looks and 'Steen means stone

Didn't have much time and couldn't think of more but will see him again. What do you think and do you have any place names you would like me to ask him.

I did mention Ypres and Loos. Can't remember how he pronounced Ypres but it is not 'Eeps' according to him and he says Loos is as in Lose not 'Loss'

Mike

Edited 27 August , 2023 by Skipman

[JWK]

1 hour ago, Skipman said:

Steenbeek pronounced as it looks and 'Steen means stone

I think it's pronounced  Stain bake ? A beek is a brook.

Edited 27 August , 2023 by JWK

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

Some of those Northern French /Belgium names can be a problem.

I remember stopping to ask some french workmen where I could find Hazebrouch and Merris, as a relation had fought with the Aust 1st Div there in 1918

I trying a number of such ways of saying them, but they pulled the French card, and did not understand what I was talking about?

Even saying I was not British, didn't help, as it some times did.

I thought it was a French thing, but I surpose it could be because I was not pronouncing correctly

[JWK]

33 minutes ago, stevenbecker said:

Some of those Northern French /Belgium names can be a problem.

I have once had the same problem in a different language: when I was working for a well known Dutch brewery I had a shipment to Sardinia, and the only way to get there was via Barcelona (at the time). So I called the Barcelona office, and they had absolutely nó clue (or pretended nót to, also a véry valid option!) where this "Sardinia" could possibly be located.

It's Cerdeña in Spanish, close enough to Sardinia, but no luck. No lo sé, no lo sé ("I don't know, I don't know")

Managed to get the shipment there through the Marseilles office, they at least understood where it was going.

[AOK4]

Well, if he's from Ghent, he doesn't pronounce the names as the locals would do. It's a totally different dialect.

Geluveld would be something like "Hillevelt" in local dialect (in West Flanders the stronger "g" is usually pronounced "h" and a "h" is usually silent - as in French). The Dutch (from Holland" would usually pronounce the "g" as "ch". Dadizele would be "Daizel" for locals.

And then there's the Flemish names of Northern French places (as the historical county of Flanders reached far into nowadays France, meaning that cities there were sometimes originally Flemish or bilingual, thus having old Flemish names. The most famous is Lille which is called "Rijsel" in Flemish. The name comes from its origins as a small island in the river there, thus "l'île" in French and "Ter IJsel" in Flemish (from the latin word "insula").