Things you were shockingly old when you learned

we were talking coffee and wondering if Sanka was still around. it is. and for the first time i wondered about the name and realized it was a portmanteau for sans caffeine. the (american) pronunciation of sank-uh threw me all these many years.

I never know how to say "sans" as in "sans serif" out loud, like in Comic Sans or whatever. If I (try to) pronounce it in a French manner it sounds kind of like... just a weird meaningless sound in an English sentence. If I say "sanz" I feel like an uncultured barbarian. Help!

Are we counting the x (-ks-, hard then soft) pronunciation of flaccid as hard? It always sounds weird to me because I usually hear it to rhyme with "placid" but iirc it's technically correct and I can't think of any other -cci-/-cce- words which don't use that sound. Well, not since I finally realised how to pronounce e.g. Occitan and occidental a few years ago at an embarrassingly old age.

All the letterpress people I hang about with say sanz, and I just copy them.

Thinking about it, though, comic sans pronounced to rhyme with Fonz would be excellent.

I know one letterpress person and they're the opposite of an uncultured barbarian so I'll go with that, then. Hooray.

Rhymes-with-Fonz seems theoretically more comprehensible than a nasal sound with a silent final s, but I think that's the compromise I've ended up with after chickening out of the silent s at the last moment, and can confirm that nobody has ever known what the hell I've been talking about.

https://forvo.com/word/sans_serif/#en

TopQuark otm

GraB otm

Shit, I pronounce it sonn suh-reef, I am a pretentious twat. Not sure I've ever had cause to say it loud though so I've probably got away with it.

how else would anyone say it? that's literally the way to say it

mind you, i say 'Comic SANZ' so... bully for me

In French, “sonn”. In typography, “sanz”, even if you are a French typographer. No exceptions.

Hmm…

son exception

yo is it true frogs got sonned by a typo kid after a sans sebeef??????

Pretty sure Shakespeare pronounced it "sanz"

Those alternative forms are delicious:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saunz

sanz kant danz

Saying Comic SANZ ... actually sorta fits the zany, anything-goes vibe of that font.

did somebody say "comic sanz"??

http://www1.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Horatio+Sanz+Celebrity+Guests+Visit+VMA+Style+4Bdj9FbbwB1l.jpg

The thing is, it's a word that comes from French, just like many English words do, but if you are speaking English to other English speakers, there's nothing wrong with giving it an English (or American) pronunciation.

I don't know, most direct loan words from French involve at least an attempt at a French pronunciation. Don't they?

I pronounce it ‘sans serif’ and ‘fucking awful typeface that should never be used’.

2 more cool options for flaccid:

ch sound. fla-chid. quite the flaccid bocce bowl, my friend.

k-si sound. flak-sid. i'm accidentally flaccid!

most direct loan words from French involve at least an attempt at a French pronunciation

I would give you carte blanche to think that, meanwhile I will wear lingerie in Baton Rouge, Des Moines, and Coeur d'Alene. I will eat hors d'oeuvres in Paris, Texas, while painting in a trompe l'oeil style, for that is my brusque genre and my nonchalant milieu.

How is Baton Rouge pronounced? I knew Americans would fuck up the pronunciations, that goes without saying.

like....which of those words aint pronounced frenchlike, save paris which yknow is fairly commonly accepted either way

Bat'n rooj

Des Moines = d'moyn

duh moyn

I know that one.

ok imma have to hear ye say it obv

Americans do not have a monopoly on pronouncing French proper nouns and loanwords in a different manner from the source language.

Ask a British about Belvoir, Beaulieu, Beauregard, Beaufort, renaissance...

Oh but do let's hear more about American boorishness, that is such a fresh topic that one sees so rarely in the ilxosphere...

As a topic, it is pretty fresh fwiw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5doRuDeQPM

now in my head i can only hear it over beats and like ‘flaCIEEEED!’

but like ymp, i kinda think thats what we're saying?

the british are second only to the french in not pronouncing half the letters in words, imo

Shit, I pronounce it sonn suh-reef, I am a pretentious twat. Not sure I've ever had cause to say it loud though so I've probably got away with it.

― Stockhausen Serves Empirical Jism (Matt #2), mercredi 2 octobre 2019 04:43 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

how else would anyone say it? that's literally the way to say it

― frame casual (dog latin), mercredi 2 octobre 2019 04:48 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

That's how I say it too, maybe without enunciating the "n". I've heard "serif" pronounced the way the guys on Forvo do but it would never occur to me to say "sans" like "sanz" tbh.

waitll ye here about what words based on irish should actually sound like

(slurred)

The American pronunciations of names like Maurice, Bernard and Gerard are noticeably less boorish than the UK/Irish ones, for a bit of balance.

wait how dyou say those then

baurice jeansonne

Pompatus

That only a river separates New York state from Canada (I thought there were other states in the way).

not even that, south of montréal

There's also a pretty cool waterfall between the two.

grew up near niagara falls, but only recently went on the maid of the mist boat ride, it was great

Looks like if you reduce NY state to a heavily distorted triangle one whole face borders on Canada separated by a river, lakes and things. & New England is down another face. Think I would have pictured those states as being somehow above it so possibly between it and Canada

By "down" you mean east, yes?

Half of the NE states have Canadian borders even with or north of New York's

Maybe the confusion comes because people conflate New York State with NYC, which is m/l in the SE corner of the fairly large state?

would have viewed the face as being near vertical so the borders being down the side of it. Wasn't really thinking about up or down in terms of further North in relation to that aspect. But would probably have been thinking new England was generally further North towards the Canadian Border which hung as a curtain on the West to East axis if thinking about things figuratively. Which it doesn't really anyway and I'm not sure of the degree of tilt of the body of the continent of North America anyway.

& I also found out when looking at the map that a picture I had since driving to London Ontario for the UWO centenary was totally wrong. I thought we'd driven North and gone through Massachusetts and then NIagara Falls when going from Mount Vernon. I just found out where Niagara Falls actually lies. So that would be an opposite direction.