Comments:
Quick Question on pronounciation of Mille...
..How is it pronounced?....I have been saying Mille as 'me lay'...I was in harrods yesterday and the chap just called it a blunt mill...have I been a prat for so long trying to be to clever and roll my 'mi' into the 'lle' when in fact its a straight blunt 'mil' that was required. Never was any good at french at school!
For the record though I do prefer 'mee lay' to 'mil' sounds far more exotic!!
From someone else who was also bad at French at school...
I believe it is pronounced 'Mill' as if the e was silent. Sorry to disappoint and am happy to stand corrected, but I believe that to be the correct way of pronouncing it.
Cheers
Andrew H
The pronunciation is tricky for native English speakers,
as it requires mastery of an unusual sound, half-way between a vowel and a consonant, which does not exist in English.
The best way I can render it phonetically is thus: MEEE-(yer), where the "yer" is very soft and quick. It's done with the tongue, the middle part of which is flicked up close to the hard palate to get the required sound.
Both "Mill" and "Mill-Ay" are wrong, as they entail the use of an English "L" sound, which involves a rather different tongue action (sorry to sound rude).
English speakers are, as a rule, notoriously unwilling to learn new sounds such as this. I'm learning Mandarin at the moment, which requires clear differentiation between two sounds which English speakers would group together as one. The word "xiao" (小) and the word "shao" (少) sound superficially the same to Western ears, but the "sh-" sound at the start of each word is actually quite different. This differentiation must be mastered, otherwise confusion reigns (as these two sounds occur constantly in the spoken language).
For those who can't be bothered getting to grips with the subtleties of French phonetics, I recommend sticking with "Mill". Just make sure you say "Ree-Shar" first.
Cheers
Tony P
The best way I can render it phonetically is thus: MEEE-(yer), where the "yer" is very soft and quick. It's done with the tongue, the middle part of which is flicked up close to the hard palate to get the required sound.
Both "Mill" and "Mill-Ay" are wrong, as they entail the use of an English "L" sound, which involves a rather different tongue action (sorry to sound rude).
English speakers are, as a rule, notoriously unwilling to learn new sounds such as this. I'm learning Mandarin at the moment, which requires clear differentiation between two sounds which English speakers would group together as one. The word "xiao" (小) and the word "shao" (少) sound superficially the same to Western ears, but the "sh-" sound at the start of each word is actually quite different. This differentiation must be mastered, otherwise confusion reigns (as these two sounds occur constantly in the spoken language).
For those who can't be bothered getting to grips with the subtleties of French phonetics, I recommend sticking with "Mill". Just make sure you say "Ree-Shar" first.
Cheers
Tony P