The Pronunciation of Django
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The Pronunciation of Django
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Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#2This is in reference to Tarantino's recently-released movie "Django Unchained": http://news.moviefone.com/2012/06/06/django-unchained-traile...
Only Django devs are likely to care about this, as air-traffic controllers howling at the inanity of the Top Gun fly-by (or, closer to home, every 3D representation of hacking in movies ever).
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#3This is in reference to Tarantino's recently-released movie "Django Unchained": http://news.moviefone.com/2012/06/06/django-unchained-traile... Only Django devs are likely to care about this, as air-traffic controllers howling at the inanity of the Top Gun fly-by (or, closer to home, every 3D representation of hacking in movies ever).
It's not silent in French. In English, it is. It's pronounced the same way as the J in James, which happens to be my name.
To paraphrase Ron Jeffries, the D in my name is silent... and invisible.
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#4This article may be of interest to you; "Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage" by David Foster Wallace: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html. The relevant argument is that general consensus and what people actually use constitutes how words should be used/pronounced, as opposed to referencing laws.
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#5This article may be of interest to you; "Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage" by David Foster Wallace: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html . The relevant argument is that general consensus and what people actually use constitutes how words should be used/pronounced, as opposed to referencing laws.
Almost every linguist (myself included) would agree. I'm not arguing about how the word is pronounced, I'm arguing about the description of how it's pronounced.
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#6This article may be of interest to you; "Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage" by David Foster Wallace: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html . The relevant argument is that general consensus and what people actually use constitutes how words should be used/pronounced, as opposed to referencing laws.
I wrote a little on this topic many years ago on my blog: http://jtauber.com/blog/2008/04/30/grammar_rules/
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#7Is this a deliberately confusing explanation?
"... this falsehood perpetuated on the big screen in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained where the eponymous character spells his name, adding 'the D is silent'."
...
"The D is not silent, it's very much pronounced."
...
"... Tarantino's film teaches the correct pronunciation ... it is incorrect to say 'the D is silent'."
...
"But in French, /dʒ/ can be written 'dj' because the 'j' alone is just /ʒ/."
OK, if the "d" is not silent, don't you mean that /dʒ/ must be written "dj"?
Why not just say that, in English, "j" as in "James" has the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, so it always sounds a little like a "d", but in French it doesn't?
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#8Is this a deliberately confusing explanation? "... this falsehood perpetuated on the big screen in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained where the eponymous character spells his name, adding 'the D is silent'." ... "The D is not silent, it's very much pronounced." ... "... Tarantino's film teaches the correct pronunciation ... it is incorrect to say 'the D is silent'." ... "But in French, /dʒ/ can be written 'dj' beca…
/dʒ/ doesn't have to be be written "dj" (it isn't in English, for example). It just is written that way in French because "j" alone is just /ʒ/ (as you quote above).
When you ask "why not just say...", well that is pretty much what I say in the first sentence of the third card.
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#9This article may be of interest to you; "Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage" by David Foster Wallace: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html . The relevant argument is that general consensus and what people actually use constitutes how words should be used/pronounced, as opposed to referencing laws.
I wrote a little on this topic many years ago on my blog: http://jtauber.com/blog/2008/04/30/grammar_rules/
I'm trying to start a movement to kill the mess that are 'participe passé'. My idea is that if everybody ALWAYS accord them, then we won't have to bother whether it's with 'avoir', 'être' or whatever else. We would always put an 's' to plural forms, and forget those evil 'participe passé' rules.
Join me. The more we are, the more Right we become.
Re: The Pronunciation of Django
#10OK, but I'm still going to pronounce it duh-jango. Sorry - it's ingrained.