How come "Favre" is pronounced "Farve"?

[kay1864]

Yeah, it's a proper name (here in Atlanta, "Houston Street" is pronounced "HOW-ston" since's it's a family name)...

but still, it's weird to my Francophile ears.

(I'm sports-impaired, so I just today learned he's a football player. Yay me :bounce:)

[Midlodemocrat]

1. The same reason I pronounce flvegan

fleavgan.

I can do anything I want behind this keyboard.

[flvegan]

13. This is the kind of disprespect I will not tolerate. n/t

[kay1864]

25. Bwah!

:patriot:

[PVnRT]

18. I thought it was fluh-vee-gan

Until I realized it was short for Florida Vegan, then I just felt stupid.

[MicaelS]

30. Color me stupid too

I never knew what it meant until just now. :blush:

[Critters2]

21. I pronounce it "fleegan". The v is silent. nt

[woo me with science]

57. yep. nt

[Chovexani]

24. I always thought it was pronounced "sex-ay"

:hide:

[jobycom]

62. Due to a non-comprehending glance, I at first called him "Florida Granny,"

and wondered what the VE meant. And I continued that mistake for longer than I'd care to mention. :)

[Tektonik]

2. Because no one wants to sound French

:P

[Tikki]

3. My FIL was named Corydon....

and instead of his nickname being Cory he was called Cordy!!?

Tikki

[crimsonblue]

4. why do you hate America?

go back al jerkistan. :P

[kay1864]

7. I love Freedom Fries!

:bounce:

[Iggo]

5. It's fawv-(ruh).

The talking heads have pronounced it wrong long enough that it's too late to correct them.

See Tony Dorsett. (It should be DOR-sett, not dor-SETT.)

See also Chavez Ravine. (sh-VEZ? I don't think so. It's CHA-vez.)

Just between you and I :eyes: sportstalkers are not the sharpest tools in the shed. But hey, at least they're tools.

[kay1864]

6. Actually this was NPR

I do know there are pronunciation guides for journalists, and NPR usually pronounces ames correctly. In the case of names, if the "owner" of the name pronounces it "wrong", well that's his/her choice.

So is this how he chooses to pronounce it?


(agree with you though as to how it should be pronounced)

[crimsonblue]

8. favre wants it pronounced 'farve' and dorsett wanted

it pronounced dorSETT. That's why the sports media did.

[kay1864]

9. Just read this on Wikipedia...

Favre was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and raised in the small town of Kiln. He is of French and Choctaw ancestry


So either Favre or his parents are just ignernt. Or lazy.

[crimsonblue]

10. really? I couldn't tell he was French ancestry by his name.

don't be stupid. Like I said, favre wanted it pronounced that way and it's the way everyone in his rural town in mississippi pronounced it.

[Midlodemocrat]

11. Dude. Don't be so nasty. It's football, not the end of the world.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. Exactly. Why doesn't everyone just worry about their own names,

instead of telling us how things should be pronounced.

Signed,

also a fan of Robert Porcher (pronounced Por-shay, but he's probably wrong too. :eyes:)

[Shell Beau]

66. Lots of people have their own ways of pronouncing their

family name. Favre isn't the first or the last. And I am not even a fan of his.

[lizziegrace]

14. In Oxford, MS

there's a gas station called Marquis Chevron. It's pronounced Marcus Chevron. The county is Lafayette but pronounced La-FAYE-ette. Also the surname Pegasus is pronounced pig-EASE. No rhyme or reason, it just is.

[Shell Beau]

And the town Gautier is pronounced Go-shay!

[lizziegrace]

26. Right!

and Pontotoc is pronounced pawn-talk.

[Shell Beau]

29. Eww! Not by me thankfully!

Although I do say Pon-a-toc

[BOSSHOG]

27. You right Cher!

[jobycom]

45. Saucier is pronounced "Sosher." It's because of the French and Cajun influence.

The Mississippi Coast was tied to the New Orleans tourist market for centuries. Rich New Orleaneans vacationed on the MS Coast during malaria season, and just to get away from the city. Even before the Arcadians made their way to Louisiana, French explorers began naming the region.

New Orleans is odd for pronunciations, too. I was just there Tuesday with my parents, and we were explaining to my oldest daughter why "Calliope" was pronounced "Caly-ohp" and "Milan" was pronounced "My' lin." Of course, she was still trying to figure out Tchoupitoulous. We told her Maple was said "Ma-play," but she didn't but that. :)

[SoxFan]

59. Tchoupitolous: You pronounce the T as in Tsongas

[jobycom]

61. I thought it was more like Tsar.

:shrug:

[kay1864]

20. See, now *those* I can understand (the first two at least)

Wrong to Francophiles, but at least they're possible alternate pronunciations. (and I've heard La-fay-ette many times in New Orleans).

But for FAVRE to be pronounced FARVE, you have to CHANGE THE FREAKIN LETTERS AROUND. One may as well pronounce "Stipe" as "Spite".

Like I said, lazy. Or ignernt.

[Z_I_Peevey]

39. In Oklahoma, there was a store called Marquis

Furniture. That's Mar-kwiss.

[Iggo]

40. Next, you'll be telling me...

...Joe Theisman changed the pronunciation of his last name to rhyme with Heisman.

Where do people come UP with this stuff?

:eyes:

[jobycom]

44. No, he and everyone around him pronounced it Farv.

It was a common name on the Mississippi Coast. There was also a butcher shop with the same name. You just learned to say it, like you learned to pronounce Biloxi "biluxi" and Saucier "sosher" and the Kiln "the kill."

My best friend growing up went to Brett Favre's school, and it was a small school. My friend's sister had a crush on him, so I heard and chanted the name "Brett Favre" a lot long before he even entered high school. As in "Sissie loves Brett Favre, Sissy loves Brett Favre." If you said it enough, she would chase you with a butcher knife. Luckily she wasn't very fast.

Definitely "Farv." The media got it right.

[BOSSHOG]

12. Down here in South Mississippi and Louisiana

there are lots of Favre's and some pronounce their names Fav-ray!!

And Favre's home town of Kiln is pronounced (by the locals) Kill!! in fact it is referred as THE Kill!

[kay1864]

22. Fav-ray I can live with

It's pronouncing the R *before* the V that makes zero sense.

[Shell Beau]

60. Ben Stiller pokes fun at that on Something About Mary.

[Parche]

15. I Call Him Favor

And I cant stand him


Just like they call golfer Olazabal -'Olah thob all' which is so stupid......its Olazobal.

Or Camillo Villegas they call him 'Cameeyo Veejaygus' which is extremely stupid
I call him Cam ill oh Vill leg us........

Or golfer Frederick Jacobson.....they call him Yock ub son......that is more then stupid
its Jake ob son.......

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. or George Bush

I call him lying, murderous scum-sucking fascist pissypants shit heel

[hedgehog]

19. Thanks to my husband, I have a German name that was shifted

in Alsace to a French pronunciation which was further garbled when the family came to America! I answer to any of five or six variations depending on how the speaker chooses to go - German, French, English, whatever! To ensure that my daughters have fun their rest of their lives, I gave them names with multiple pronunciations! That was inadvertent. I know how to say their names, it's just that no on else does!

[Critters2]

23. It's bugged me for years.

I studied French all those years, with those damn teachers insisting I pronounce things correctly, only to see people of obvious French descent mispronouncing their names. It just grates!!

[Rambis]

28. Patrick Roy says...

leave the Farv-ra alone!:P

[MicaelS]

31. You want a better one that that?

Try "Taliaferro" pronounced TOL-ih-ver. Huh, what? :crazy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliaferro

[kay1864]

33. Yeah but in Favre's hometown...

it's pronounced "Tafia-lerro"


:rofl:

[CottonBear]

36. Yup. That county is not too far from where I live here in GA! n/t

[billyoc]

32. Our Houston St. here in Manhattan is pronounced the same way, named after that same family.

:hi:

[WinkyDink]

34. Ignorance is my guess.

[RetroLounge]

35. It's french-creole

It means "Buh-Bye you prima donna"

:rofl:

RL

[Neshanic]

37. It's pronounced D R E A M Y.

[mentalsolstice]

38. I'm married to a cajun from NOLA

After 18 years, I've learned to throw phonetics outta da winda. For instance, I now see the name Herbert, and I automatically pronounce it aaa-bear.

[lutefisk]

41. If "Favre" is "Farve" then "Brett" should be "Burt"...right?...Burt Farve...n/t

[Pharlo]

53. No, not Burt.

Rbett.....pronounced 'Ribbit'........Rbett Farve. Has a certain ring to it.

Almost like Sade. Give him credit, at least Farve is dealing only with existing letters, not pulling any in from some imaginary place.

[many a good man]

42. I wonder how he pronounces Havre de Grace, Maryland

Harve da grass?

[Generic Brad]

43. He's my farverite quarterback

[Kutjara]

46. It's an acceptable French pronunciation.

Just like the port of "Le Havre" is pronounced like "Le Harve."

[WinkyDink]

52. Where?

[kay1864]

64. Agreed, where?

Le Havre is "Hahv" not "Harve"

And I'd be okay with "Favre" as "Fahve". But it's clearly "Farve", which is just effed-up.

[Kutjara]

68. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up...

...in the UK, but when I pronounce "Havre," it sounds like "Harve" with a soft "r", closer perhaps to "Hahve" or "Fahve", as you say, but with a very slight roll on the final sound. I've only heard Farve's name pronounced here on the LA TV news (not being much of a sports fan), and the way they say it sounds reasonably close to a soft-r "Farve" pronounciation. OK, the "r" is perhaps a bit harder than I'm used to, but it's by no means wrong, although the average French person would probably roll their eyes and make some pithy comment about "Les Americaines."

Of course, since we Brits have historically made a specific point of pronouncing French words wrong just to irritate our Gallic cousins (why do you think we call Beauchamp "Beecham," Beaulieu "Bewley" and Ypres "Yipes"?), I could be totally wrong.

[ceile]

47. Don't know, but always wondered....

However, your "how-ston"- well, that's just wrong. It's "Hugh-ston". Had friend from NYC ask me if I was saying it wrong...born and raised in Houston, TX, so, yeah, I'm saying it correct.

[kay1864]

63. Well, not really

It's a family name, so it's theirs to pronounce that way.

As long as it makes some kinda sense, I'm OK with it. At least they pronounce it with the letters in the right order :crazy:

[fudge stripe cookays]

48. Fucking cajuns.

They refuse to pronounce the beautiful French language the way it's meant to be pronounced. This is only one hideous example.

Others:

my friend's family, the Darbonniers (they said it Dar buh NEER)
The musician Clifton Chenier (Chuh NEER)

I know there are others. Haven't had enough coffee yet. For anyone ready to jump on me, I also have French/Canadian/Cajun roots.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

49. French invites mispronuciation

They sort of arbitrarily pick and choose which letters to utter, and which to leave silent.

I knew someone named "Beauchamp" who pronounced it BEE-chum.

And many streets in Detroit have French names, all pronounced funny.

[fudge stripe cookays]

50. {snooty look}

Only from the uneducated.

:D

Sorry. My French teacher had a doctorate from the Sorbonne, so taught me to have an ear for a beautiful language. It makes me cringe when I hear it butchered, whether it's intentional or not. And I'm sick of Mr. FARVE's antics. Glad he's gone.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

54. An english speaker, saying this.

"They sort of arbitrarily pick and choose which letters to utter, and which to leave silent."

Pot, meet kettle.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

58. haha, touche (with no clue how to add accent mark)

Yep, you're right. Even words that look alike can sound different

Plough
Cough
Though
Tough

English seems like a pile of words that came in from everyone who conquered or ran the place: english, romans, scandanavians, french, dutch

:hi:

[Recovered Repug]

51. I'm heard that other sides of the family

pronounce it "Fav - ray"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

55. Cuz us Murrikans cain't tawk.

[Wapsie B]

56. I thought it was Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior.

But Favre for short.

[snooper2]

65. Dyslexia

nt

[jobycom]

67. They just liked it better that way. That's no one's business but the Turks'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38WeXe41Czo