I always have said Mar-say. I take it that means I was right with a pronunciation for once?

Marseilles pronounced http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?marsei01.wav=Marseilles

YUCK. That link was gross. Mar-say is much closer to the French pronunciation...

So it's not mar-SILES?

A joke, a joke.

Mar-SAY. Just as my username isnt shortened to valo because valoi(s) is pronounced Val-wa. Stick to the French pronounciation :)

Are you guys sure? That audio link is clearly garbage but i always thought it was mar-sigh

thisis the correct audio link guys http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggmars05.wav=Marseille the problem with TMG's is that there is not s

Marseilles is english alternative only

you go there through http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Marseille

That audio link gives me the creeps... not because of the -eille part... that is actually much more like real french than -SIGH or -SAY or anything using English phonetics. The truth is... that sound just doesn't exist in English.

But as I said, that's not the main problem. The main problem is the 'R'. If you use an English 'R' it's never going to sound even close to real French.

It is pronounced: MINE

it's pronounced "Marseilles".

okay, jk.

I live in Kentucky. There is a town here called Versailles and the people that live there pronounce it ver-sails. *sigh*

I imagine it's named after Versailles in France of the same pronunciation. But I have always pronounced Marseilles Mar-Say, rightly or wrongly.

Jacob, not to be rude, but the people in Kentucky do not always pronounce french the best. Im no master either, but I do know that many of my friends in Kentucky cannot say Louisville correctly.

@ p.Tea

You might want to consider changing your username. It's a magnet for harrassment ( I apologize for the mispelling of harrassment)

The correct pronounciation for Marseilles can be easily located in a dictionary, as can the correct spelling of harrassment. For those of you who do not know what a dictionary is, it's a big book with every word of a specified language, with correct spelling, context, and pronounciation.

Wow, I know people are going to roast me on the above statement.

Ail(le) and eil(le) have different sounds in French.

Ail(le) is pronounced like eye, such as in paille, taille, etc.
Eil(le) is pronounced like ay, such as in reveille, and Marseille.

I can guarantee that Versailles is pronounced with a sigh

Thanks Alamothe.

Versailles is the sigh sound because of the "a" in the "sailles."

Marseilles is Mar-say because of the "e."

This is absolutely the correct pronunciation, I promise you that.

Chrispminis is right I second his remarks.

I agree with chrispminis on everything he says about "ail(le)". (The -aille sound is shorter then the english word eye but at least it's the same sound).

I also agree with him that reveille and Marseille have the exact same sounding "eille" in them. (Although reveille is not really a french noun... the french noun is spelt réveil without the -le).

But still... it doesn't sound like -ay. Or I don't understand how you would say -ay, but if it is as in say or day or may it's not the same sound as the french -eille. Ask a real french person if you don't believe me.

Wait... I meant a real french person who actually has a good knowledge of pronouncing English.... which narrows it down a bit :(

it's not exactly 'mar-say' but that's the closest an english tongue can come

I guess I have to agree with that ;-)

Giwald, I purposely used a conjugated verb in order to draw the parallel between the word and Marseille.

I'm actually bilingual in French and English and live in Montreal right now. The difference between -ay and -eille isn't huge, and subtle enough that you shouldn't worry about it. The first syllable is probably the less similar of the two in Marseille. I don't think any Francophones will call you out on the second...

That's fine. It's just funny because in English reveille is a noun, and of course it comes from French but the noun as such doesn't exist in French as far as I know.

And about pronunciation... I agree that it's subtle, but it's there, and I'm pretty sure the French would call me out on Mar-Say. Now I'm not familiar with Canadian accents in English or Quebecois accents in French, so if you wish we can easily blame all this on my frame of reference being different from yours.

...or if you wish we can keep throwing opinions and facts at each other... I guess this game attracts people who like discussing ;-).

Haha. I'm sure we could find something that warrants our time more than this discussion... but in the interest of rigour, I'm going to ask my French friends. =)

Final word from a native French speaker:

Mar-SAY-ye (That's as close as I can transcribe it)
Ver-SIGH-ye (same as above)

yes there is that "uh" sound at the end in truly accurate pronunciation; i left it out because in my experience most of my fellow english speakers cant handle it. i could have been jumping to conclusions though

Yeah. I was wondering whether to mention that as well. As far as I know it's a very subtle syllable, almost a half syllable. It might be extended in literature that's read aloud, or poetry, or such so that it's more noticeable, whether for rhyming, rhythm, or formality, but I think in colloquial speech it's not too perceptible.

@ diplomat1824: what?

you're correct giwald, quebecois or anyone who grew up with french immersion in canada can spot the difference between 'mar-say' and 'marseilles'.
in canada there are a number of bilingual people (e.g. our prime minister) who cannot pronounce french words correctly if their life depended on it.

as a result the accent has become very lax

Thanks for Pandarsenic's post.

My mother is glad to have helped. XD

My grandmother was actually born in Marseilles, so she's quite familiar with how to pronounce it.

Grandmarseilles?

Ok... now that we've got that out of the way, there is at least one more thing we have to finish in this thread:

Quote diplomat1824:
"You might want to consider changing your username. It's a magnet for harrassment ( I apologize for the mispelling of harrassment)"

Which leads one to wonder... when were you going to apologize for misspelling of mispelling?

Mar- SAY is how its phonetically pronounced..

no we agreed it's mar-say-ye

He did not misspell mispell;

he misspelt, misspell... ; )

Daniel-san:
First, you're late. Second, you're wrong.

flashman: I have no idea what anyone did or did not misspell but this sentence confuses me.

To all of you....the French actually pronounce it as Mar-Sigh-a. The last consonant is very weak and often hard to notice. The word itself is Italian (note the proximity).

@ Giwald:

Right now. I apologize for the misspelling of mispelling.

*Cracks up at diplomat*
Having fun?

lol @ diplomat

p.thottumkara... we just reached agreement on this with several native speakers and people who spent months of their lives in France... and now we're back to the "sigh" myth?

I'm with Panda here... you're late, and you're wrong.

Thucydides and Pandaresic got it.
Where I was, it was "sigh"....it could alter from area to area, much like Malayalam pronunciations of words alter from different parts of Kerala, India.

^--- what nonsense