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How would ye pronounce "Dumas'"?

  • 24-08-2006 11:56PM
    #1
    elvenscout742
    Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭


    As in Wikipedia's Dumas' version of the story?

    It's spelled almost exactly the same as the plain word, so it might be pronounced the same, but that would be queer. Apparently, English rules regarding the possessive didn't take French pronunciation of the names of people whose names end in a silent -s (see what I did there - why can't it be more like French or Japanese?) into acount.


Comments

  • #2
    elvenscout742
    Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭elvenscout742


    I may not be back on my own, and I forgot to subscribe.


  • #3
    sceptre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,607 ✭✭✭✭sceptre


    I'd cheat and say "the Dumas version of the story"

    Or go for a slightly more exaggerated ah at the end and a soft 's'.

    Not that it comes up in conversation down the pub as often as you might think.


  • #4
    tHE vAGGABOND
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,693 ✭✭✭tHE vAGGABOND


    I believe, as you said, its a silent S..

    so its 'du-ma'


  • #5
    elvenscout742
    Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭elvenscout742


    I know that.

    My concern is the final apostrophe, which is okay in Jesus' and Moses', where the final letter is already pronounced, but it just feels weird in English to totally neglect a letter even when it's followed by an apostrophe.


  • #6
    theCzar
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭theCzar


    Is strange, but I've never had to say Dumas' before, it just never came up.

    I would conjecture that you would pronounce the s, his name is pronounced Duma', so forget the s is always there and silent and pretend its added for possessive.. Doo-mas, with the mas pronounced as in "You can't take that, it's me bleedin' ma's"


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