French Speakers

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I need your help.My French is pretty poor, as a matter of fact, it's getting close to being non-existent since I haven't used it in so long.How would you pronounce the name, Tixier.I think it would be pronounced like, Tee-air or Ty-ear.I say more than likely the former of those two, if they're anywhere close. Am I anywhere close?

The Portuguese name "Teixeira" is pronounced teh-SHAY-rah, but that's just another name with an "x" in it. In Mexican Spanish, "Mexico" is pronounced MEH-i-ko. In French, as far as I know, the "x" is just pronounced "ks", but you never know how people pronounce their own name. The family may have spent generations living somewhere other than France (and pronunciation varies in other French-speaking countries).

Thanks Guys,As far the origin, the family is from somewhere south, south-west of Lyon, France. If I remember right.As near as I can figure it out it's either, Tee-gzyer or Tee-zyer, with the "yer" being pronouced almost like "yair".

What type of French?They say it differently all over the world. In Quebec, words and pronunciations are quite different then, let's say, Louisiana.

Quote:As for the origin, the family is from somewhere south, south-west of Lyon, France.

Then you were right the first time.Ty-(y)ear.

Cool, thanks _____________________The "ks" sound is what's throwing me. When that's in there it's like you have to stumble through the pronunciation of the name.To me it should be closer to what converse it saying but I'm basing that on nothing.

No not really just one of my obsessive curiosities so that I may be precise and correct.

I'm thinking of the name "Goulx" which is generally pronounced "groo"

An x at the end of a word is usually silent, as in "prix". (However I have been told that one should pronounce the x in "Astérix" (as ks) because it's Gaulish, not French.) If the following word starts with a vowel, the x is sometimes pronounced, as z.An x inside a word is different, though; and it's made more complicated by the fact that it's from the south and may be Provençale, and possibly even Catalonian in origin.I think it's one of those words where even a native speaker would ask how it's pronounced.

yes, I know that Asterix, Obelix and even Dogmatix were all Gaulish :wink:

What about Dominatrix?

> ks

High five on that.

Ineligible is right vis-à-vis Provençale, and Catalonian, but a Languedoc is also a good possibility. In Perpignon, the pronounce pain (bread) like "peng". It sounds kind of funny if you're from Paris.

According to this Wikipedia article, Provençal (it seems I spelt it incorrectly) is a langue d'oc dialect.

Yup, but I'm really talking about an accent, versus a dialect, although I suppose that's rather besides the point as far as pronouncing a name is concerned.I knew I guy named Camille, from some mountainous part of east-central France, and his parents pronounced the "ille" as "eel", and his grandparent pronounced it as "eyah". In modern usage, I think "ll" is pronounced as "yuh", except for the "ille" construct, although I think I once found an exception....can't remember what it was.Not that I'm amazingly fluent at understanding spoken French, but I found some accents very difficult to deal with.

all this french talk is pretty hot

Thanks Natasha and everybody else that helped me out. Now all of this has gotten me to want to relearn French. I've forgotten just about all of it.