I would pronounce liaison ( note the spelliing) as 'LEE-ay-zon'. That's as close as I can get to it using the ordinary alphabet. The Oxford English Dictionary gives three possible pronunciations of the 'son'part in the internationsal phonetic alphabet, the last of them being the original French one.The word is of French origin. British speakers, like myself, usually pass lightly over the final 'N'so it is barely noticed.This may be a relic of the French pronunciation,which phrase books sometimes render as 'ohng' ( a bold but vain attempt to reproduce it). Some American speakers seem to put stress on it so that the last syllable sounds like ONN.
And welcome, Hooverin. It's always nice to "see" new faces. If (when) you have more questions, ask away. Don't feel they're stupid. If you want to know the answer, they are not. The only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask.
Hope to see a lot more of you on these boards.
Posts: 744 | Location: Surrey, England | Registered: 06-03-02
If you follow this link, and then click on the red pictures that look like speakers, you will get the 3 accepted pronounciations. I, personally, pronounce it the way the middle speaker does.
Well what do you know! I go to that site every day and have never even thought to click on the speaker icon! Thanks for pointing that feature out Mentos!
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
