On 20-2-2009 12:06, Stephen wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:23:00 +0100, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> 
>>>> Is that the standard English pronunciation or the standard French, or 
>>>> that by Englishmen who tries to imitate the French?
>>> In French the i is not really longer than average, the pronunciation is 
>>> /klik/.
>>>
>> Yes, but would an Englishman know?
> 
> No and it is considered pretentious to pronounce French words, that are used in
> English, as they are pronounced in France.

Funny that. Try pronouncing a French or English word here as if it is 
Dutch and see how people react. In fact as a Dutch person you are 
assumed to know which words come from which language and change 
pronunciation rules in midsentence as required. Only words that have 
been incorporated in the language for a long time get assimilated 
somewhat. We do write 'buro' nowadays and not 'bureau', but I have yet 
to see a newspaper write 'kompjoeter', unless for humoristic affect.

>  For instance Paris is not "Paree", filet is fill-et etc.
Paris is not a good example as we do have a Dutch word for it: 'Parijs', 
with a 'ij' vowel that you nor a French person can pronounce correctly.

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