Beaux Arts

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mary McCormick.

Well, hello, Mary. Where are you calling from?

New Jersey.

New Jersey? Where in New Jersey?

Livingston.

What exit?

What exit? 145.

Okay, great. All right, I’ll be right over. Have the fire ready.

What’s on your mind, Mary?

Well, I have a little curious thing with my nephew,

Who we had a pronunciation dispute about the Beaux-Arts style of architecture.

B-A-U-X.

Is this what aunts and nephews usually talk about together?

Yeah, isn’t that a little strange?

Well, he is a, Martha will love this, he’s a classics major at Fordham.

All right.

So we were driving through D.C., and he happened to mention something about the bow art architecture.

And I thought, what?

And I said, do you mean bows art?

And he said, no, it’s pronounced bow art.

Wait a minute, is he talking about little bows on the building?

Bows on the building or maybe boyfriend art, I wasn’t sure.

So, of course, his mother agreed with him that it was indeed pronounced bow art.

Oh, this is your sister?

This is my sister, yeah.

Okay.

Now, was she doing this because she was just sticking up for her son or because she actually thinks that’s how it’s pronounced?

I think a little of both.

So the word that we’re talking about here is, it’s a French term, right?

Yes.

And it’s B-E-A-U-X hyphen A-R-T.

That’s correct.

All right.

Right.

So now why in the world would your nephew say beau art?

I don’t know.

That’s a great question.

Wait, you asked us.

Well, because apparently he had a world history teacher that told him it was hyper-foreignism to say Bozart.

Oh, now wait a minute.

That’s interesting.

So you’re saying, Mary, that Bozart is the correct pronunciation?

Yes, that’s what I’m saying.

And I’m agreeing with Mary.

Way to go.

With a T sound at the end.

Yes, Bozart.

All right, I’m going to argue with both of you then.

I should say Bozart.

It should be Bozart without the T at the end.

That’s hyper-foreignism.

That’s actually correct French.

The hyper-foreignism is to actually get the elision between the X and the A correct,

But actually leave the T on, which is an Anglophone way of pronouncing the word.

Yeah, but we’ve adopted this into English.

Well, then the question is, if you’re going to adopt it that far,

Why not take your nephew’s pronunciation, which would be adopted even further?

Well, see, that’s what I said to him.

Why not just say fine art, which is the translation?

Right.

Boy, that’s hyper-borrowing.

Okay, so he’s studying classics at Fordham University, which is a great school.

And I don’t know why he just couldn’t adopt the really fancy pants pretentious pronunciation,

Because if he’s going to get away with it anywhere, it’s going to be there.

Right. New York.

Well, you guys, I’m looking at a few English language dictionaries,

And I’m seeing the pronunciations bozar and bozart, and I see one with bozarts,

But I don’t see any that drops that Z sound.

I think that’s the problem.

That’s where I would disagree with him is dropping that Z sound.

And I also don’t think that it’s really a hyper-foreignism either.

I think that’s when you mispronounce a foreign word like a lot of people say, coup de gras, when it’s actually coup de gras.

Right.

Which is the final stroke, the stroke of mercy.

And coup de gras is actually blow of fat.

So I get to gloat is the bottom line.

No, but this is why I was kind of saying that the teacher who said it was a hyperphoranism had a point, because you are pronouncing the T on the end, which is incorrect.

So if you’re going to attempt the French pronunciation, you would leave that T sound off.

Right, but I don’t think that she’s attempting the French pronunciation, right?

You’re talking about what’s been adopted into English, right?

Correct.

That’s only one of the adopted pronunciations, right?

But in any case, your nephew’s wrong no matter which way you look at it.

Oh, very good.

And your sister, too.

It’s more so that my sister is.

Get her back for all those years of hogging the bathroom.

Absolutely.

No, that’s very interesting.

Yeah, I just don’t see any evidence at all that you would ever take out the Z sound,

Regardless of what you do at the end of that word.

Right, yeah.

The Z sound’s kind of important, and actually I think it makes the word really nice to hear.

And there’s clarity.

I didn’t know what bow art was.

Well, you know, it’s the picture of the mermaid on the front of the boat, right?

That could be, yeah.

No, that’s bow art.

Oh, okay.

I’m thinking of the thing you bring home from kindergarten where you take the little bow tie pasta and you glue it to the paper and mom puts it on the fridge.

Tell him that’s bow art.

Well, Mary, thank you for your call.

I hope this turns out well and doesn’t turn into like a fisticuffs when you’re –

Oh, no, not at all.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Thanks.

Best of luck.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’ve got a question about pronunciation, give us a call.

Martha and I are sure to argue about it.

1-877-929-9673.

Or you can email us at words@waywordradio.org.