Pronunciation Guide?

SupaFoo

Starving Law Student
Silver Member
Hey AzBers,

I was just wondering if we could put a pool pronunciation guide together, for terms and names such as szamboti, hoppe, capone, etc.

Thanks for all replies! :thumbup:

-Alan
 
I'll take a shot, no idea if they're right or not...

zam bot ee
hop ee
ka p-own (like Al Capone??)

then there's everyone's favorite pronounced every which way, Schon = sounds like the name Don, not like Shawn, shown, shun, or whatever other ways I've heard. Schon, Ron, Don, etc.
 
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trustyrusty said:
then there's everyone's favorite pronounced every which way, Schon = sounds like the name Don, not like Shawn, shown, shun, or whatever other ways I've heard. Schon, Ron, Don, etc.

You know what's funny about that--I tried calling them for two weeks, totally random times at work, to get a correct answer about that.

Just rang and rang and rang....
 
Impact Blue said:
You know what's funny about that--I tried calling them for two weeks, totally random times at work, to get a correct answer about that.

Just rang and rang and rang....

well, I've also heard that in German it should be pronounced SHO - EN, long O and the N sound, two syllables??? But those that work for the cue company say SCHON like I tried to explain; like Don. With my last name (Bauer), I should go with the German pronunciation, but will defer to those who work for the cue company :D :p
 
Legendary cuemaker, Herman Rambow - the bow is pronounced like bow tie, not like bow wow. He made a cue for me once, yes, I'm that old.

Legendary billiard player, Raymond Ceulemans, is pronouned kool-a-muns, with emphasis on first syllable.

Legendary pool player, Ralph Greenleaf, is pronounced, well, green leaf.
 
and no where near a leagend in anything - Bauer is pronounced BOW as in take a bow - er ... or just think of Eddie Bauer or newer reference from the show 24 - Jack Bauer. BTW, the wife wouldn't let me name the kid either of those first names...lol.
 
trustyrusty said:
well, I've also heard that in German it should be pronounced SHO - EN, long O and the N sound, two syllables??? But those that work for the cue company say SCHON like I tried to explain; like Don. With my last name (Bauer), I should go with the German pronunciation, but will defer to those who work for the cue company :D :p

In English we don't have the sound required for the correct pronunciation of the German work schon (which means beautiful). There is an umlaut (two little dots) over the o in German, and the closest I can come in typing is shern.

But being from Chicago, I'm all for mispronouncing it. We have a street here named Goethe, after the German poet, and pronounce it Go-thy. The correct pronunciation is something like Ger-ta. The only people who pronounce it that way here are imports who spent too much time in school.
 
Rich93 said:
In English we don't have the sound required for the correct pronunciation of the German work schon (which means beautiful). There is an umlaut (two little dots) over the o in German, and the closest I can come in typing is shern.

But being from Chicago, I'm all for mispronouncing it. We have a street here named Goethe, after the German poet, and pronounce it Go-thy. The correct pronunciation is something like Ger-ta. The only people who pronounce it that way here are imports who spent too much time in school.

Dats juss cuss all of yous up dare in Chicago talk funny anyways. lol :thumbup: That's all I got to slam Chi-town, y'all get most of us downstaters' (pretty much anywhere south of 143rd is DOWNSTATE) tax money, so we gotta make fun of your accent. :p
 
trustyrusty said:
well, I've also heard that in German it should be pronounced SHO - EN, long O and the N sound, two syllables???

Never. It's always going to be tough to explain how o umlaut is pronounced in American English since that particular dipthong sound doesn't really exist.

For German and German only (and only in certain areas of Germany) I think the closest representation "shern" with a semi-silent r.



But those that work for the cue company say SCHON like I tried to explain; like Don.
I know nobody ever reads this when I say it, but the problem with saying things like "it rhymes with Don or Shawn" is that it doesn't take much traveling to find out that Don or Shawn isn't pronounced the same across the country. Someone from parts of Texas might say "Shone Putnam", while someone from Wisconsin might say "Shaaaaaaahn Putnam" while someone in New Jersey might say something closer to "Show un Putnam".

So, I've heard Evan Clarke of Schon say it like someone from his area would say the o in hot. That is, just shy of a short a if you were from my part of the country. Do you say Don with an o just shy of a short a? I don't.

Fred
 
Schon has an umlaut

Schon spells their name with an umlaut (two dots) over the o, which indicates a special vowel sound in the German language. There is no exact equal in English.

The closest I can describe it would be "Shurn," but that's not perfect either. The r sound is there, but slightly de-emphasized. "Sho-en" and "Shun" are close too.

If you want to use English vowel sounds, "Shown" is defntely better than "Shawn." It is definitely NOT "Shawn."

If I remember right, the german word "schon" means "beautiful."

Edit: Sorry, I did not see Rich93's and Cornerman's postings. We must have been writing at the same time, and we all said almost the exact same thing!
 
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Cornerman said:
Never. It's always going to be tough to explain how o umlaut is pronounced in American English since that particular dipthong sound doesn't really exist.

For German and German only (and only in certain areas of Germany) I think the closest representation "shern" with a semi-silent r.




I know nobody ever reads this when I say it, but the problem with saying things like "it rhymes with Don or Shawn" is that it doesn't take much traveling to find out that Don or Shawn isn't pronounced the same across the country. Someone from parts of Texas might say "Shone Putnam", while someone from Wisconsin might say "Shaaaaaaahn Putnam" while someone in New Jersey might say something closer to "Show un Putnam".

So, I've heard Evan Clarke of Schon say it like someone from his area would say the o in hot. That is, just shy of a short a if you were from my part of the country. Do you say Don with an o just shy of a short a? I don't.

Fred

I hadn't thought about different accents coming into play, and I lived in southern GA for awile .... where the word hot is pronounced HAWWT. I was born and raised in central IL, and remember the first time I heard a girl down there say my name (Rob), makes me weak in the knees even thinking about it. lol I guess the best way I can describe how I say it (Schon) is like when the doctor tells you to, "open up and say AH".
 
One of my favorite quotes from Danny McGoorty
"Years ago anybody who rhymed Hoppe with pop instead
of poppy would have been thrown in jail"
 
vin said:
i think joss is pronounced as josh :)

Common misconception. According to Dan Janes, it's just as it's spelled. It's from a Chinese term meaning god, luck, and the devil all in one. From the book "Tai-Pan".
 
The closest I can think of to pronouce Schon the way I was taught is, take the word shoe-in and and replace the hyphen with a soft 'r' and make it one syllable. Then make the 'o' sound a little deeper than the pronunciation of 'shoe'.

The word is very common in German and can mean beautiful, pleasant, nice, etc. i.e. beautiful woman, pleasant weekend, nice vacation, etc.
 
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