[erockrph]

I don't know... to me that's like news reporters that bust into an accent whenever they pronounce a hispanic name. It's jarring and sounds pretentious. I kinda split the difference and sort of go "seigh-zawn" or occasionally "seigh-ssawn". But I'm French Canadian so I kind of get a pass on mangling continental French anyways...

[thebigbaker]

Language is fun.

+1!  On my father's side is Hawaiian, Samoan and Filipino.  My mother's side are from North Carolina and "Gawgia."  My wife's family are all Czech and Irish farmers from NE Iowa.  Next time we are all together again, I'm gonna have to record some of those conversations!

[HoosierBrew]

I don't know... to me that's like news reporters that bust into an accent whenever they pronounce a hispanic name. It's jarring and sounds pretentious. I kinda split the difference and sort of go "seigh-zawn" or occasionally "seigh-ssawn". But I'm French Canadian so I kind of get a pass on mangling continental French anyways...

+ 1. 

[thebigbaker]

I don't know... to me that's like news reporters that bust into an accent whenever they pronounce a hispanic name. It's jarring and sounds pretentious. I kinda split the difference and sort of go "seigh-zawn" or occasionally "seigh-ssawn". But I'm French Canadian so I kind of get a pass on mangling continental French anyways...

That reminds me of Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis.  She speaks with a "normal" American-English dialect then overly pronounces the Italian.  This drives my wife crazy, however, I'm not listening to anything that Giada is saying

[klickitat jim]

+2

Circa 1985... Nicka rrrrrrrrragua

[HoosierBrew]

+5 to Giada.  I'm with you.

[erockrph]

+5 to Giada.  I'm with you.

Yeah, her Italian is about as pretentious as her way-overly toothy "don't let your gums dry out" permagrin.

[tonyp]

I pronounce it Say-zon, because i'm not french and that's how it looks to me like it should be pronounced, even if its wrong!

[Slowbrew]

I pronounce it Say-zon, because i'm not french and that's how it looks to me like it should be pronounced, even if its wrong!

+1 - Right dair wit you.  8^)

[bboy9000]

I thought in French language the consonant at the end of a word isn't pronounced unless it is followed by a vowel.  Wouldn't Paris be "pair-ee?"  Not that it really matters.  From an linguistic anthropological perspective as long as a group of people understand the message then the language is valid.

[bboy9000]

Even though Texas is a "whole other country" I run into the same thing in Missouri where we have towns with French names but you are looked at as either a fool or pretentious for pronouncing Versailles as "Ver-Sai" or Creve Couer as "Krev-ka."

[Joe Sr.]

Even though Texas is a "whole other country" I run into the same thing in Missouri where we have towns with French names but you are looked at as either a fool or pretentious for pronouncing Versailles as "Ver-Sai" or Creve Couer as "Krev-ka."

In southern Illinois you're marked as an outsider if you don't pronounce Marseilles as "Mar-sails." Cairo is "Kay-row."

[punatic]

Thank God it's not that goofus sounding ply knee the elder!   

[nateo]

Re: Missouri, yeah, it's baffling here. Versailles = Ver-sales, Lebanon = Leb-uh-nin, Kimbrough = Kimbroo. People are really assholes here if you don't know how to say things in their peculiar, messed-up way. It's not bad in the cities, but outside of KC/STL/Springfield, if you speak standard American English, people are pretty rude. I swear, when I moved here from CO people treated me like I was a Martian.

In CO, everyone said "Say-zahn" which is probably why it's so weird for me to hear everyone say "Say-sawn" here, with a stress on the middle s. Say-zahn is at least closer.

And yeah, I hear you on the whole "correct pronunciation sounds pretentious" thing. If you order a croissant from an entrepreneur, with proper French pronunciation, you'll sound pretentious. I think it's just as pretentious to go out of your way to deliberately mangle the French, like RAM described in Texas court.

@Bboy - the n is like, barely pronounced, in your nose, not with your tongue touching the top of your mouth, like a "regular" n. For the nasal n, you tongue shouldn't have to move.   

[euge]

Say-Zon?

I was constantly teased when working in Las Vegas for my Texan y'alls or yawls. Sorry, can't help the way we say things. It is what it be.

But when the waiter corrected me at Drai's for saying Belgian endive~in-dive with "it's awn-deev" it nearly got nasty.