View Message

Pronunciation of Odile?
I'm guessing it's o-DEEL, but I'm not 100% sure. I would like the French pronunciation, just in case there are any others. :-)Miranda
vote up1vote down

Replies

My great-great-grandmother was called Odilia, I love that name...
vote up1vote down
Hi Miranda,o-DEEL is right!Satu
vote up1vote down
Ah, ze nuances of froggy pronounciation!I would say
Oh-DIL
where DIL is as in "dill" (the spice), not as in "deal".
vote up1vote down
D'accord. It's not a long drawn-out English 'deel' but a more delicate in the front of the mouth 'deel' which is more like 'dil'. Don't pull your lips back into a smile when you say it.Gorgeous name btw!Devon
vote up1vote down
D'accord. It's not a long drawn-out English 'deel' but a more delicate in the front of the mouth 'deel' which is more like 'dil'. Don't pull your lips back into a smile when you say it.Gorgeous name btw!Devon
vote up1vote down
Isn't it the L that makes the difference? The way I remember spraining my vocal organs long ago, one has two different L sounds in English, the light L at the beginnings of words (or syllables) and the dark L, pronounced further back in the mouth, used post-vocalically. And French only uses the light-L version, wherever it appears in a syllable; this makes the ee sound less like itself to English ears. Eh bien, I was never much good at it and the only Odiles I've ever known weren't French anyway ...
vote up1vote down
Yes, French is very front of the mouth where English does sort of swallow their L's. With Odile in French the tongue ends behind the front teeth with a tiny hint of smile-pullback on the lips whereas in English it ends behind the lower teeth on the floor of the mouth with a wide pullback grin. I try to cop out with 'it's delicate' because it's soooooooo hard to explain adequately in writing and a good audio file would probably clear it right up!Devon
vote up1vote down
Yay! I was right! :-Da
vote up1vote down
gotioseugnjisdfughweljbggdf
vote up1vote down