内容简介

“Amateur（业余的，业余选手）”、“debris（碎片，残骸）”、cliche “（陈词滥调）”……这些发音有些奇怪的英语单词有什么共同点？其实，这些重音靠后、结尾单词常常不发音或需要发鼻音的英语单词其实来源于法语。听节目，跟主持人 Beth 和步理学习来源于法语的英语单词有哪些发音规律和技巧。

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（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Buli
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。We are here to answer your questions about English language, culture and life. I'm Buli, and to help me answer this week's question, Beth is with me!

Beth
Hello, Buli. How are you?

Buli
I'm very well, thank you. So, let's hear the question.

Question
I find those words with French origin are a little bit difficult to pronounce, such as bourgeois, genre, and the like. Particularly, the nasal vowels in the words are much more difficult to pronounce well. Are there any hacks for it? Thanks.

Buli
嗯，真是个有意思的问题！英语中有不少单词其实都来自于法语。而在这些单词中，确实也有一些单词保留了原本与英语略有不同的发音。在本期节目中，我和 Beth 就来分享一些英语中来源于法语的单词的发音规律和技巧。

Beth
And by the end of the episode, you will be a pronunciation connoisseur.

Buli
Oh yes. No longer an amateur!

Beth
OK. Let's start straight away with the words we just used. So, a 'connoisseur' is a person who is informed and knowledgeable about something, usually related to the fine arts, though they're not an expert.

Buli
And the pronunciation is 'connoisseur'. Notice the ending, /ɜː/. French-origin words that end in the letters 'eur' are often pronounced like this.

Beth
Exactly. Other examples are 'entrepreneur' and 'saboteur'. The final syllable is stressed, so it's pronounced in the French way. However, Buli, you also said 'amateur' earlier which is also a word ending with 'eur'. Can you hear the difference in the ending?

Buli
I can. This is actually pronounced with a schwa – 'amateur'. And another example would be 'chauffeur'. This is because the 'eur' syllable is unstressed. Oh, I wish I had a chauffeur to drive me around.

Beth
How very chic of you! Now, 'chic' is another French-origin word. Notice the letters 'ch' are pronounced /ʃ/. Other examples of this are in the words 'cliche' and, again, 'chauffeur'.

Buli
在介绍了一些英语中源自法语的单词后，现在让我们再来分享几个在读这些词时的发音技巧。我们可以注意到，不少源自于法语的单词都带有鼻音，特别是 “nasal vowels（鼻元音）”。比如，“genre（类型，体裁）”、“fiance（未婚夫）” 以及 “bon voyage（一路顺风，旅行平安）” 等等。常见的鼻音包括 /n/、/m/ 和 /ŋ/ 等等。在发这些音时，我们需要从鼻腔而非口腔呼气。

Beth
Commonly the nasal sound in French-origin words is /n/. One tip would be to not pronounce the /n/ at all, but imagine you are going to. So practise the first part of 'genre', but don't get to the second syllable and hold the word on for longer than normal, like this 'gennn'.

Buli
'Gennn'. OK. I can't hear the /n/ at all.

Beth
OK. Now let's practise the second syllable but make the /n/ very small. 'nre'. 'nre'.

Buli
'nre'.

Beth
OK, now add it together with that long nasal sound we did. 'Gennn-nre'. Then make it shorter. 'Genre'.

Buli
'Gennn-nre'. 'Genre'.

Beth
Exactly! And you can try the same technique with 'fiance'. 'Fiannn-nce'. 'Fiance'.

Buli
And 'bon-voyage'. 'Bonnn-voyage'. 'Bon-voyage'.

Buli
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。刚刚我们讨论了英语中来源于法语的单词该如何发音这个问题，并分享了三个念法语单词时的小知识。

首先，英语中有不少与 “人” 或 “职业” 有关的单词其实来源于法语，这些单词通常以 “eur” 结尾，比如 “entrepreneur”。在读这些单词时，重音通常靠后，但其中有一些例外的单词会把重音提前，结尾变为央原音 /ə/，比如 “amateur”。

其次，来源于法语的单词发音往往包含鼻音，比如 “genre”，在练习这些单词的发音时可以尝试把鼻音的前一个音拉长，逐渐渐变到鼻音，感受鼻腔震动的发音方式。

最后，来自于法语的单词中含有 “ch” 这两个单词的音节通常发 /ʃ/ 这个音，而不是 /tʃ/。

Beth
But, an extra note – lots of English speakers completely disregard the original pronunciation of French words when it comes to the letter 'n'. So, you can say 'genre' and 'fiance', but a lot of people say 'genre' and 'fiance'. There's barely that long nasal sound at all – just the English /n/ sound.

Buli
So now you hopefully won't make a 'faux pas' when pronouncing French-origin words in English. 怎么样，Beth，你觉得我们还有时间解释一下 “faux pas” 这个单词吗？

Beth
Absolutely! We don't pronounce the /s/ sound in words that end in the letter 's'. Think 'debris', 'bourgeois' and, of course, 'faux pas'.

Buli
Brilliant. 英语中往往还会省略法语单词中结尾字母 “s” 的发音。比如，单词 “debris（碎片，残骸）”、“bourgeois（追求名利的，俗气的）” 和 “faux pas（失礼，失仪）” 等等。

Beth
That's it for this week. Remember, if you have a question that you would like us to answer, you can email us too at: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Buli
你还可以通过微博向我们提问。我们的微博账号是 “BBC英语教学”。Bye!

Beth
Goodbye!