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How to pronounce Pacino, Scorsese and Sean

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Latest post Mon, Jul 20 2009 10:27 PM by Anonymous. 30 replies.
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Jackson6612  +  316093 Tue, 16 Jan 07 10:08 PM

Hi,

1: I think Pacino in Al Pacino is pronounced like pa-chee-no. But Why don't we simply pronounce it as pa-see-no?

 

2: How do we pronounce Scorsese in Martin Scorsese? Is this

i:  score-see-se

or

ii: score-see-ze

 

3: Why do we pronounce Sean in Sean Connery like shawn? I think rather it must be pronounced like cean like sen in senate or like seen.
Jackson6612
Joined on Wed, Dec 27 2006
Senior Member 3,688
It’s a difficult question for any man to answer… Whether to follow his dreams no matter what… Or to give in slowly and let life lead you where it will.
Alienvoord  +  316096 Tue, 16 Jan 07 10:16 PM
Scorsese is pronounced
score - say - zee

The English pronuncations of these words are approximating the pronunciations in the languages they are from. Pacino and Scorsese are from Italian, Sean is from Gaelic. That's why their pronunciations are unusual.
Alienvoord
Joined on Tue, Jul 25 2006
Toronto
Full Member 345
Marvin A., 2 yr 314 days ago
I say them as:
Pacino [ patSino ]
Scorsese [ skOrsEzE ] or occasionally [ skOrsEze(I) ]
Sean [ SAn ]
Jackson6612  +  316461 Wed, 17 Jan 07 07:49 PM

 Alienvoord wrote:
Scorsese is pronounced
score - say - zee

The English pronuncations of these words are approximating the pronunciations in the languages they are from. Pacino and Scorsese are from Italian, Sean is from Gaelic. That's why their pronunciations are unusual.

Alienvoord, according to you we pronounce Pacino as pa-chee-no because we are approximating italian pronunciation. But why isn't Pacino just written as Pachino or Pacheeno because Pacino is misleading word as far as pronunciation is concerned? Perhaps Al Pacino chose these weird spellings for pa-chee-no himself to distinguish himself.

By the way how do we pronounce Gere in Richard Gere? I think it is pronounced as gray. 
Jackson6612
Tanit  +  316474 Wed, 17 Jan 07 08:26 PM
 Jackson6612 wrote:

to you we pronounce Pacino as pa-chee-no because we are approximating italian pronunciation. But why isn't Pacino just written as Pachino or Pacheeno because Pacino is misleading word as far as pronunciation is concerned? Perhaps Al Pacino chose these weird spellings for pa-chee-no himself to distinguish himself.

As far as I know, Pacino didn't chose his surname. It's an Italian surname, and we pronounce 'ci' as 'chee' in 'cheese' (a bit shorter, though).

Do you think it's weird? Why? Contrary to English, Italian has a phonetic pronunciation, with only few exceptions (such as 's' and 'z').

This means that, whenever you'll find 'ci' or 'cci' (as in 'cappuccino'), pronunciation will be the same as 'chee-(se)'... It's much easier, isn't it?

Scorsese is an Italian name, too. Italian e sounds like e in 'bed.' For the above reason, we pronounce the two e's in Scorsese the same way, while the two s's are different. So, if  we have to "approximate Italian pronunciation," I disagree with  both skOrsEze(I) and score-say-zee.

I'm not good at English phonetic symbols, so I can only say that maybe Marvin's one (skOrsEzE) could be a good transcription. I'm sure Yohf can give a more informative explanation!
Tanit
Joined on Mon, Jul 31 2006
Senior Member 3,040
There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. (Dante)
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nona the brit  +  316515 Wed, 17 Jan 07 11:11 PM

Pacino is not an odd spelling. It is an Italian, not English, name.

Gere is pronounced Geer to rhyme with beer and steer and mere.
nona the brit
Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004
England
Veteran Member 11,713
The name says it all.
Alienvoord  +  316517 Wed, 17 Jan 07 11:16 PM
 Tanit wrote:

Scorsese is an Italian name, too. Italian e sounds like e in 'bed.' For the above reason, we pronounce the two e's in Scorsese the same way, while the two s's are different. So, if  we have to "approximate Italian pronunciation," I disagree with  both skOrsEze(I) and score-say-zee.



It is normally pronounced skOrsEzi or "score-say-zee". I know that it is not the same as the Italian pronunciation, but that is how it is pronounced in English.
Alienvoord
Marvin A.  +  316603 Thu, 18 Jan 07 02:57 AM
 Alienvoord wrote:
 Tanit wrote:

Scorsese is an Italian name, too. Italian e sounds like e in 'bed.' For the above reason, we pronounce the two e's in Scorsese the same way, while the two s's are different. So, if  we have to "approximate Italian pronunciation," I disagree with  both skOrsEze(I) and score-say-zee.



It is normally pronounced skOrsEzi or "score-say-zee". I know that it is not the same as the Italian pronunciation, but that is how it is pronounced in English.


Hmm.  That's a matter of opinion.  That's not how I would say it in English.  I would normally try to pronounce it as close as possible to the Italian, which would be [ skOrsEzE ] , but because English doesn't permit final [ E ] it would most likely usually come out as [ skOr\sEze(I) ] ; but if I wanted to pronounce it the Anglicized way, I would actually say [ skOr\siz ] rather than [ skor\sezi ] like you think it should be pronounced.
Marvin A.
Tanit  +  316814 Thu, 18 Jan 07 03:21 PM

 Alienvoord wrote:

It is normally pronounced skOrsEzi or "score-say-zee". I know that it is not the same as the Italian pronunciation, but that is how it is pronounced in English.

Fair enough. Since he's American, you can decide how to pronounce his surname!

This reminds me of another thread, where some members discussed the way some foreign surnames are pronounced in English: http://www.englishforums.com/English/NonNativeAccents/2/dwdqn/Post.htm
Tanit
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