Portuguese pronunciation.

December 17, 2004 11:55 PM

Portuguese pronunciation. I'm a fan of Brazilian singer/songrwriter Jorge Ben. How do you pronunce his first name? I've heard "Yor-gay", "Hor-hay", "Zhorzhj", and plain ol' "George".
posted by TiredStarling to writing & language (14 comments total)

I'm a big fan too! In some of his songs he says his name, and it sounds closest to "Zhorzhj". Hopefully a Portuguese speaker will correct me if I'm wrong!
posted by Eamon at 12:20 AM on December 18, 2004

Next question:


How do you pronounce "Zhorzhj"?
posted by o0o0o at 12:43 AM on December 18, 2004

The 'zh' makes the same sound as the 'g' in 'hedge'. To my ears, it sounds like "ZHOR zhi".

But again, this is coming from a non-Portuguese speaker, and it wouldn't be the first time I've butchered pronunciation (something I still manage to do often in English).
posted by Eamon at 12:59 AM on December 18, 2004

Great! Now I'm gonna have Umbabarauma stuck in my head for the next three days. Thanks, TiredStarling.
posted by epimorph at 2:32 AM on December 18, 2004

In Portuguese, unlike Spanish, I believe you actually pronounce the "J". Zh would be better than the Dg of "George".
posted by salmacis at 3:52 AM on December 18, 2004

You pronounce the j in Spanish, too; you just pronounce it differently. In Portuguese it's zh, like the s in leisure (or the g in genre, if you pronounce that in a vaguely Frenchy-French way). The full pronunciation of the name in Brazilian Portuguese is ZHOR-zhee (like Georgie but with zh instead of j), but in fast/colloquial speech the last syllable is elided and it can sound more like ZHORZH. Hope this helps.

(Same thing goes, obviously, for the name of the great novelist Jorge Amado, who is always called HOR-hay by ignorant gringos.)
posted by languagehat at 7:42 AM on December 18, 2004

or the g in genre, if you pronounce that in a vaguely Frenchy-French way

What other way is there to pronounce genre? This is the third time lately I've heard reference to another way that is not "Frenchy" of doesn't begin with that zh-sounding g, but I don't think I've heard anyone say the other.
posted by dame at 8:21 AM on December 18, 2004

(Same thing goes, obviously, for the name of the great novelist Jorge Amado, who is always called HOR-hay by ignorant gringos.)

:::slaps himself for his sinful ignorance and makes a mental correction:::

What other way is there to pronounce genre?

Often pronounced "gunrack" in the Deep South, I believe...
posted by rushmc at 8:52 AM on December 18, 2004

I've heard people say "JOHN-ruh", dame, rather than "ZHON-ruh".
posted by bcwinters at 9:01 AM on December 18, 2004

Yeah, I've heard people use the 'dg' sound for 'genre' - normally in english, we start g/j words with that hard edged sound (like "justice" or "genus").
posted by mdn at 9:32 AM on December 18, 2004

and in case you're wondering, the last name isn't pronounced "ben." the N gets swallowed up in the nasalized vowel. so it sounds you're saying "bang" with a cold or something.
posted by ism at 9:46 AM on December 18, 2004

Brazilian Jorges REPRESENT!
posted by jewzilla at 10:00 AM on December 18, 2004

"john-ruh" is very, very common. Next is "zhon-ruh." The correct French pronunciation (halfway between "Jean" and "Jeanne" in French) is rare.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:30 PM on December 18, 2004

not to derail the thread, but those of you who are fans of portuguese singing should go see The Life Aquatic, which features Seu Jorge singing a lot of David Bowie songs in portuguese, and both the singing and movie are awesome
posted by mai at 5:58 PM on December 18, 2004