How to Say: French presidential names
A guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the Â鶹Éç Pronunciation Unit.
For defeated centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, the pronunciation is fraa(ng)-SWAA bigh-ROO. Ségolène Royal is say-go-LEN rwaa-YAL - we don't anglicise it to "roy-AL".
For Nicolas Sarkozy we recommend nee-ko-LAA sar-koh-ZEE, preserving stress on the last syllable in line with our usual treatment for French. This surname is pronounced in a variety of ways in France, perhaps because of its Hungarian origins (the Hungarian surname Sárközy is pronounced SHAR-koe-zi - oe as in French "coeur"), but our research suggests that sar-koh-ZEE is the most widespread and most appropriate pronunciation for M Nicolas.
In particular, people we consulted on this particular name in the French Embassy and in Â鶹Éç's team of French monitors strongly disliked the "cozy" pronunciation with stress on the middle syllable, even in English-speaking contexts.
(For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.)