BALE-ay vs. bale-AY

June 25, 2018 9:10 PM

In American English, it seems in my experience that non-professional dancers pronounce "ballet" with the accent on the second syllable (like bale-AY) and that professional ballet dancers pronounce it with the accent on the first syllable (BALE-ay). How come?

Accenting the second syllable seems closer to the French, and so I'm wondering if switching the accented syllables is from a UK English influence? Or something else? I'm also open to the possibility that my American English "ballet" pronunciations are not the same as all American English "ballet" pronunciations.

posted by lazuli to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

You've got it. It's an American vs British English difference: https://books.google.com/books?id=twC-H4a8VcYC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=ballet+stress+syllable&source=bl&ots=CnwXPjyxvb&sig=r7QnfY-Pgvqn6ojrMgBgd8VGLjM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyx_X-u_DbAhWutVkKHbr7CDkQ6AEIdjAI#v=onepage&q=ballet%20&f=false

I'm guessing that you're observing a professional vs amateur difference because the classical schools of ballet are the Russian, the French, the Italian, and the English, and probably in the U.S. you'll mostly get the English influence, including the pronunciation? Maybe someone with more knowledge of ballet will chime in.

FWIW, I have been in ballet classes in the U.S. where the teachers stressed the second syllable.
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 9:28 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

British English often prefers to stress the initial syllable and American English the second, as you have noted. But neither is really closer to the French which doesn’t usually stress either, as Wikipedia explains: “The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress…. However, some languages, such as French and Mandarin, are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical stress entirely."
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:41 PM on June 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

This can happen within in-groups. Another example would be theater/theatre, which normally is completely orthographically ambiguous for most AmE speakers, but for people within the stage "scene", so to speak, the BrE spelling can take on a different meaning.
posted by lilies.lilies at 2:51 AM on June 26, 2018

I don't know whether it's directly relevant, but: A few years ago I was chatting to some British academics in their late fifties/early 60s, and they were occasionally referring to research. Pronounced RE-search in the American fashion. And I casually mentioned that when they began their careers they would have pronounced it re-SEARCH, and I wondered when the pronunciation had shifted. They were surprised (and a little shocked) to realise that it had changed at all and had no idea when the switch might have been.
posted by Grangousier at 4:04 AM on June 26, 2018

Forgive me for butting in as a non-native speaker, but isn‘t the American pronunciation „Bal-LAY“ and the British pronunciation „BAL-lay“?

Bal, as in „pal“?

I‘ve never heard the first part pronounced „bale“ as in „bale of hay“, and the dictionary appears to back me up. Is „bale“ a regional pronunciation?
posted by Omnomnom at 5:47 AM on June 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Forgive me for butting in as a non-native speaker, but isn‘t the American pronunciation „Bal-LAY“ and the British pronunciation „BAL-lay“?

Bal, as in „pal“?

Yes, thank you! Something looked off about mine and I couldn't quite figure it out, though "bale"and "bal" (or, for two real words, "pale" and "pal") aren't super-distinct in my idiolect.

OK, I get that yes, this is likely a British-ism, but I'm still wondering why. Does anyone know why American ballet dancers would be using the British pronunciation of a French word that as far as I understand came to the US via Russia/Russians?
posted by lazuli at 5:55 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The Russians themselves would have used UK pronunciation when speaking English.
posted by languagehat at 6:03 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm partial to the Irish "Billy Elliot" pronunciation, "balley," like "valley"
posted by turkeybrain at 8:11 AM on June 26, 2018

I can't speak to exactly why they're different, but I did want to point out this other habit I've observed (in myself, and others): Americans do tend to say 'bal-AY' when speaking about ballet in general: "My daughter is in bal-AY classes" but when speaking about a performance, may switch to BAL-ay: "We're going to the BAL-ay tonight.' I really only hear that when preceded with 'the' as in a specific performance.
posted by rachaelfaith at 8:26 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is it really a British English thing to put the stress on the first syllable? UK Mefites, how do you pronounce frustrated? This U.S. English speaker puts the accent on the first syllable.
/tangential derail, sorry.
posted by emelenjr at 1:31 PM on June 26, 2018

Response by poster: Is it really a British English thing to put the stress on the first syllable?

It's a British-English thing to put the stress on the first syllable of two-syllable words borrowed from the French more than American English tends to.
posted by lazuli at 2:40 PM on June 26, 2018

American here. Never heard it as "Bale-LAY" and to me that sounds like how someone with a Southern drawl would pronounce it. I pronounce it Bal-LAY. The "bal" rhymes with "pal" or the name "Sal."
posted by AppleTurnover at 4:28 PM on June 26, 2018

This OUP blog entry on the fate of French words in English may be of interest here.
posted by Deodatus at 6:04 PM on June 26, 2018

From Deodatus' link:
Nowadays, everybody I hear says often (of-ten)

Noooo! Are future generations of operetta lovers going to totally miss the brilliance of "Often frequently or Orphan a person who has lost his parents"?
posted by basalganglia at 3:43 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Accenting the second syllable seems closer to the French

It does to me too, but actually I think that's pretty subjective, because in French, accented syllables aren't inherent to the pronunciation of words like they usually are in English.
posted by clavicle at 8:11 AM on June 27, 2018