French Pronunciation

[Razanir]

Greetings, French-speakers of the Playground! I have a question about Les Misérables. Is Thénardier 3 or 4 syllables? Specifically, is it -dee-ay or -dyeh (IPA: -die/-dje)

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The latter, as I say it. Last time I read/saw anything related to Les Mis was years back, the French mini-series (which I highly recommend!) starring Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich. Not "ee-yay", just "yay". But I have terrible young-urban-Canadian french, and it's just gotten worse with the bits of Montreal urban dialect I've picked up... So I would pronounce it like

then-ahd-YAY!

Too lazy to go get the appropriate IPA symbols. That's the as in three, not as in there.

[Amidus Drexel]

Greetings, French-speakers of the Playground! I have a question about Les Misérables. Is Thénardier 3 or 4 syllables? Specifically, is it -dee-ay or -dyeh (IPA: -die/-dje)

I would say the first pronunciation (with 4 syllables), although it seems to be a matter of dialect rather than entirely one way or another. The two sound very similar; I have a hard time hearing the difference between the pronunciations unless I say them very slowly. Honestly, you'd probably be fine with either.

[HerrTenko]

As far as this frenchman knows, the second one would be correct.

The IPA symbols for it would be [tenaʁdje].