http://typophile.com/node/10155

http://typophile.com/node/15600

http://typophile.com/node/1089

http://typophile.com/node/6208

http://typophile.com/node/15053

http://typophile.com/node/7940

Some are covered in these threads.
And one of yours to start the ball rolling

Cheltenham – chelt (ch as church, el as elf) en (n as rock'n'roll) ham (um)
(also as in sandwich, well not mine, cheddar and watercress today:)

Tim

No idea if these are correct, but with some general and foreign langauge knowledge ... I can assume

Benquiat - Ben-goo-at
Cochin - Ko-shan
Didot - Dido
Hoefler - Hoff-la

> Benquiat - Ben-goo-at

EEEK!
It's BEN-gat, unless you are a Spaniard, then it's BEN-gee-YAT!

The threads listed by Tim D cover a lot of previous discussions.
The problem you will have with pronunication is that many typefaces were named after actual people and places... something that always gets confused in pronunciation depending on the language it is spoken in.

Key points to consider would be --

If it's the name of the person, it should be pronounced the way that person (or those who knew that person) would say it.
(Like the old Monty Python skit-- "It's spelled Luxury Yacht, but it's pronounced Throatwarbler Mangrove.")

If it's named after a place, then it's based on the designer's pronunciation, n'est pas?
Example: Depending on whether the designer is from NYC or Lyon, typefaces named "France" "Nice" "Paris" would all sound different.

Each language has it's own way of inflecting and pronouncing, so does that mean that "Frutiger" and "Univers" is pronounced wrong in a majority of the world languages?

For the most part, I think many of us do NOT want to sound like idiots, especially when speaking with learned or experienced type directors and designers. The thing is, even when you listen carefully at International conferences, pronunciations vary slightly.

I'm surprised you didn't have "Lubalin" in the topic thread list.

Norbert, that was my first initial reaction - Herb Lubalin - I've mispronounced the man's name and the typeface name for years. My second misprounced name would be Rudolf Koch.

Lubalin seems pretty straight forward, but now that you mention it, I assume saying Loo-ba-lin is wrong. Oops! sorry Herb.

btw...Ratbaggy, it's nice to see you made it over to typophile; if I'm not mistaken, I think i may have said something about it on a thread over at YH! a few months back. Wasn't it about creating a purely geometric typeface?

Koch (as Cock)
Tim

oh, and to clear up any mystery ratbaggy, I actually go by the name "mdg2184" over at the YH!

thanks Tim. I had a feeling about that one, and I think I saw it in the other thread.

Cheltenham - UK English - Chelt-num
Cheltenham - US English - Chelt-ing-ham

Si

timd: as robert koch was a german guy, pronouncing it "cock" is wrong. but we're lucky with this one, koch means cook in german and so there are existing online "how to pronounce"-guides. koch.wav

I was sure there is a better way of representing than my attempt, a sound file is much more use though.
Tim

Caecilia (btw only one l) is a Roman name, the wife of Sulla according to Bringhurst, so the pronunciation depends on which classics theory you choose

Cae (as Caesar) cil (as sill) ia (as California)
or
Cae (as Kai) cil (as kill) ia (as California)

Tim

Kabel always was a ? for me.

So after all the tease, will someone give a clue about Lubalin?

The stress is on the "ba" and not on the "Lu" as some people might think (and *I* always did). So the name is pronounced Loo-ba-lin.

"and 'Univers' is pronounced wrong in a majority of the world languages?"

In fact, you can pronounce Univers as you like, they specifically chose a name that is pronouncable in many languages, instead of "Monde" as it was proposed by Frutiger. After all, Univers was meant to be a "typeface for all people and all times" (or similar). This is also the reason why they introduced the numbers system: They only needed packaging and price lists in one language, which the French would read as "Univers cinquante-cinq", the English as "Univers fity-five" and so on.

btw…Ratbaggy, it’s nice to see you made it over to typophile; if I’m not mistaken, I think i may have said something about it on a thread over at YH! a few months back. Wasn’t it about creating a purely geometric typeface?

indeed it was.

;)

I suppose Underware's Sauna is often mispronounced, since at least one of the designers is Finnish. In the Finnish pronounciation, the first syllable rhymes with cow, a bit like "SOWna"

"Cheltenham - UK English - Chelt-num
"Cheltenham - US English - Chelt-ing-ham"
Cheltingham?
:) You must be english. In america, we say Chelt-en-um

Funny how English trying to do 'American' and visa versa regularly get it wrong in characteristic ways. English trying to affect an American accent pronounce 'very' as 'vurry' (rhymes with furry), trying and failing to get the American 'r'. Americans trying to affect an English accent pronounce 'very' as 'veddy', trying and failing to get the English 'r'.

Some English and Australian actors are brilliant at catching the American accent, though.

I've always wondered how on earth you pronounce ff cocon.

I think Norbert's right. It's a courtesy thing, although sooner or later all of us get to mispronounce something critical. That's why the .wav file idea is such a good one - because it would prevent me making a complete cock-up of Rudolf K's name...

BTW, I'm still waiting for someone to release a typeface called 'Cholmondeley'

kabel is a german word, too, meaning cable, thus there is an online pronounciation help: http://dict.leo.org/le?9140973

i pronounce cocon in the french way, a mild "co" like coca and con like.. eh.. con. oh well, i just say it in french, its a normal word there after all.

Andi, is that Loo-BAH-lin or Loo-BAY-lin? I've heard it both ways.

Bruce, I'm certainly no expert, but I believe it's the first one (as we Canadians have no accent). : )

(as we Canadians have no accent). : )

Ah, but a Frenchman would tell you that you do. An accent is not clearly defined, whoes to say what is the "base" or truest form of language/pitch? To a man in Copenhagen, a Californian might have an incredibly heavy accent when he speaks in Danish.

Canadians without accents!
I'm sorry, what's that all about?
=D

oh yeah, eh, I was kidding - hence the smiley face at the end.
We're a world of accents - all enchanting.

Nu accent ey? :-)

ChrisL

Americans have hundreds of different accents. I once asked for directions in rural Georgia and have no idea what was said. I think the 2 guys I talked to there felt the same way about my accent :-)

ChrisL

Not only Americans, Chris. I had the exact same experience in Scotland two years ago. The further north I went, the harder it was to understand anyone! After asking directions from a man on the road, I turned to my husband, blinked at him and said, "Just drive".

It's such an odd thing, isn't it? I mean, we enunciate correctly, speak slowly, what's the problem? Why can't we understand each other? Just as you wrote, I'm sure that gentleman barely understood me.

(And I don't say "Nu" but I do say "ey!". Ey? : ) )

If you've never seen Robin MacNeal's 7 (?) part series on English, try to track it down. It's about 20 years old. He covers English as spoken in the U.K., parts of the U.S., Japan and other places.

I am blessed with the ability to hear (and repeat) subtle aural nuances. At a party one time, I heard a guy say a couple of sentences and said "You're from Massapequa, aren't you?" He said "Do I know you?" He was indeed from Massapequa (LI, NY), not far from my hometown. But this was in Atlanta more than a decade after I'd moved. I love accents.

If anybody ever says, "Is yins gawn duhntuhn?" ask them if they are Stiller fans--you will know they are from Pittsburgh.

ChrisL