How do you pronounce the name of the composer Erik Satie?

May 10, 2004 8:03 AM

I'm a piano music neophyte, which, along with not speaking French, leaves me unable to guess the correct pronunciation of this composer's name: Erik Satie. Can anyone help?
posted by pjhagop to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

I've always heard his last name pronounced "sah-TEE". "Erik" is pronounced as you'd expect it to be.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:09 AM on May 10, 2004

Air-eek Sah-tee would be my guess. If there was an accent on the final e, it'd probably be Sah-tee-a (long a).
posted by gramcracker at 8:11 AM on May 10, 2004

my music history teacher pronounced it as sah-TEE, as well, so there you go...
posted by jaded at 8:30 AM on May 10, 2004

ArEk' sätE'. Jaded's teacher is correct - here's a wav.
posted by iconomy at 8:35 AM on May 10, 2004

The French pronunciation is eh-reek sah-tee, with very slight stress on the last syllables, but in English people usually pronounce "Erik" as if it were the English name Eric. (I do, unless I'm speaking French.) The last name is always sah-TEE (in an English context).

gramcracker, I really don't see the point of providing a wild guess; questioners can do that for themselves. If you don't know the answer, watch and learn. I don't mean to seem snide, but I see a lot of this sort of thing in AskMeFi, and it bemuses me. People come here for answers, not guesses.
posted by languagehat at 9:11 AM on May 10, 2004

Closely related: what is the proper pronunciation of Debussy? I've heard about a dozen. Same question for Milhaud.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:19 AM on May 10, 2004

I've heard it been said, in person, by - this gives it a real note of authority - Christopher O'Riley and Peter Shickele, as "DebYOOsee."
posted by abcde at 11:57 AM on May 10, 2004

I've heard Milhaud pronounced (altogether now, in your best quasi-French accent!), as 'mee-YOH'. And I can certainly vouch for 'deh-BYOO-see'; that's how I've heard it pronounced all my life.
posted by chrismear at 1:06 PM on May 10, 2004

Deh-BYOO-see is a common anglicized pronunciation, but deh-byoo-SEE, with a slight stress on the last syllable, is much truer to the French (and in my experience more common on classical music programs).
posted by languagehat at 7:06 PM on May 10, 2004