How do you pronounce "Wegen"?

[JTMartin]

As in the pick of course. Use one all the time but not sure how to say it. I can see several different possibilities.

[Joel Spaulding]

Check out This thread for some speculation, entertainment and eventually, the correct answer.

[JTMartin]

Wow, thanks Joel. After reading all those posts I guess I should have asked what is the most "common" pronunciation!

[tango_grass]

correct Dutch pronunciation would be: "Veh-Ken".

[man dough nollij]

Wouldn't that be Veh-Chen? With the Ch a hard sound like a K in the back of the throat? (I know we just went through this on the other thread...)

[JEStanek]

p'-ick.

[Joel Spaulding]

Tango and Man Dough - Perhaps some sound clips would clear this up ?

[Nolan]

I just asked my cube neighbor here who's from South Africa... he says it's
Vee-ah-hen... with the spit up your snot sound in the middle. He said it's a dutch word that means "Weighted"... as in heavy but I believe in this case it's a last name. Does that spelling make sense? I 'm no good at this stuff.

[journeybear]

I read the old thread and that was good for a few laughs, esp. Bert and Ernie in Dutch! Youse guys have a gift for conjecture, I must say. May I humbly suggest someone CALL Michel Wegen and ask him how to pronounce his name? Or, better yet, just call the company and MISpronounce his name and see what happens. Oh, and if you could, get the pronunciation of his first name too, while you're at it.

Or you could try calling one or another of the dealers on this list and ask them how they pronounce it. I'm sure they would have learned how by now.

http://www.wegenpicks.com/dealers.html

Hey, if you're willing to spend 3.75 - 25 euros for a pick as thick as a CD jewel box (you can get a T-shirt for less than that!), you should be willing to pay for the call. And they should be willing to accommodate your request, and pleasantly too ...

[journeybear]

OK - I bumped into my Dutch friend today, and she said "vey-chen," as has been noted before. She also said it translates as "roads" - plural; singular is "weg." "Wegens" means "because of." I checked with babelfish (NOT an authoritative source) and it agreed with Nolan, that it means "to weigh."

I have taken the time to weigh in on this most winding of roads long enough and only because of the fact it was there.

Or, according to babelfish: Ik heb de tijd om binnen bij dit het winden van wegen gevergd lang genoeg te wegen en slechts wegens het feit daar was het.

Anyway ...

[Ivan Kelsall]

I think that there's more than one 'Cafe member who resides in Holland who could chip in here. I have a Dutch friend who lives in Majorca,Spain. I asked him once re.the correct pronnunciation of the name of the Dutch painter,Van Gough. To get it right first time,pronounce Van the way it's spelled then pronounce the 'Gough' part as if you were clearing your throat,but sound the 'G' as an 'H'.It sounds strange to us,but that's Dutch for you !!, My appologies to our Dutch friends,i'm equally sure that English sounds weird to some folks - ain't it great !!!
Saska

[man dough nollij]

Yeah, if you want to alienate a Dutch friend, start talking about "Van Go". It's pronounced totally differently, and I'm not sure how to translate it into American. I think the Dutch are some of the greatest folks I've met in my travels, but a lot of their pronounciation sounds like hawking up a lunger...

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've just had reason to phone my Bank.re my on-line banking account & the person i spoke to was from Holland no less - guess what i asked him ? - right first time ! . He pronounced 'Wegen' as
'Vehen',so now it looks like we have a choice ,
Saska

[PseudoCelt]

...re. the correct pronnunciation of the name of the Dutch painter, Van Gough. To get it right first time, pronounce Van the way it's spelled then pronounce the 'Gough' part as if you were clearing your throat,but sound the 'G' as an 'H'. It sounds strange to us, but that's Dutch for you !!, My apologies to our Dutch friends, I'm equally sure that English sounds weird to some folks - ain't it great !!!

That Dutch "-ough" sound also exists in English. It's more or less the same sound that's at the end of "Loch" (or "Lough", if you're in Ireland), when it's pronounced right (ie. not "lock").

Patrick

[journeybear]

That Dutch "-ough" sound also exists in English. It's more or less the same sound that's at the end of "Loch" (or "Lough", if you're in Ireland), when it's pronounced right (ie. not "lock").

Patrick

I don't think it really exists in English, but in other languages from Great Britain - Scottish, Irish, Welsh - it sure does. Well, perhaps I mean American English, which shies away from this sound, turning the Hebrew "Chanukah" into "Hannukah," and the Arabic "Qatar" into - well, it's still spelled the same but pronounced with the "K" sound. This "ch" sound sounds harsh to us, but is actually considered the SOFT "ch" in Hebrew - the hard "ch" being the "k" sound. It's difficult to free oneself from the cultural background one grew up in to understand how people growing up in different cultures have learned to speak.

In the previous thread on this subject http://mandolincafe.com/forum/showth...ighlight=wegen there are examples of Dutch being spoken in commentary on a soccer match and a clip from Sesame Street. I found it illuminating to hear these gutturals integrated into the speech patterns quite naturally. It reminded me of the clicking used by Aborigines - these are vocally produced sounds that anyone can make yet don't exist in modern English. Similarly, there are consonants that don't exist in Hawaiian, and consonants that do exist in Hebrew - a "ts" sound - that don't exist in English. These are just a few examples; I'm sure there are many more.

Ah, sweet diversity. Vive la difference!

[Jim MacDaniel]

OK -- but how do you pronounce "Thile"?

[man dough nollij]

OK -- but how do you pronounce "Thile"?

I thought it was pronounced TEElee, but I saw a concert where he was introdouced at THEElee, where the THEE sounds like "thief".

[mandolinbill1949]

Ve gen

[mandozilla]

Vaygen I'm pretty sure if it were a German name but Dutch doesn't always seem to follow the whole Germanic/Nordic pronunciation thingy...BERTRAM, where are you? Help!

Or, we could just call them PGDP's (Pretty Good Dutch Picks)

[Ivan Kelsall]

Spot on Patrick - i never thought of that.That's exactly how my Dutch friend (Mart) in Majorca
pronounced it. I used to have his e-mail address but lost it. But the Dutch guy i spoke to yesterday
didn't hesitate when i asked re.the pronunciation of Wegen,so i'm assuming that's the way to say it,
Saska

[barney 59]

There is this weird subtle sound in the pronunciation of dutch that seems to be produced inhaling as you make the sound as opposed to exhaling --it's really hard to do. I have a friend named "Jaap" and the first 3 letters are pronounced sucking in -like a hiccup! As to Wegen here in America we pronounce it the way it is spelled, otherwise we get taken as affected. A BMW is not pronounced -Bayh Em Vay and Paris is Paris not Pearee. In Holland it wouldn't matter, they all speak English better than most of us so they're not likely to get offended -but they speak Queens English and their understanding of the rules of grammer is better than most of us possess, so watch yourself. It's the French that you have to be careful around and they would rather you didn't try than butcher it trying. Wegen is just as it looks or "pick" as someone suggested.

[man dough nollij]

I have a dutch friend who told me that they have a choice in school of whether to learn American English, or British English. And you're right, most of them do talk better than what we do.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Is there a difference Lee ?,
Saska

[man dough nollij]

You odda no, Ivan. We 'Merican's have the last word on pronounciation and grammer. (Knot to mention spellling).

Mando content: I can't weight to buy a Colllings.

[Jeroen]

It has been fun following this thread.

I hope I am not ruining the fun for David and Kevin, and maybe some real Dutchies frequenting the board.

Our W is not like your V in vintage or voodoo. It is even softer than your V in river. It actually sounds like your W, but we don't have the ooish sound preceding it.
If you americans would try to pronounce VW our way, you guys would almost say "vayooway". (Hoo)We (hoo)would'nt.

The first E in Wegen is the american (not british) pray, stain and weigh sound.

The G is indeed the "smoker in the morning" sound of Loch Ness; or more subtle: the J in the Spanish pronunciation of San José. The German Ch from Bach or Liechtenstein is perfect for Southern Dutch pronunciation. (Yes, small countries have souths too).
I am from the North, and I like my G's throaty, especially when I hit myself with a hammer on the thumb and ask God why he hasn't doomed me forever instead.

Van Gogh is not Ven Gof, but Vaughn Choch. (with a short o like in Loch).

The second E is a short uh like in moment or later.

The N is like yours.

Vay-gun would be closest.
The V would be too v-ish, and the G not right.

As has been said: pronouncing it like Wegen would not raise eyebrows here.

Last week I read in the news that German Philosophy students studying in Amsterdam would have to read their Kant and Nietzsche in English.