Pronunciations?

[SandWrrm]

Hey guys,

How are you actually supposed to say Bene Gesserit?

I've always favored something like BEN-ay Jess-er-it or be-NAY Jezz-er-it, but my best friend said something like BEN Guess-er-it the other day (which I thought sounded dorky... ) But I'm not sure...

[SadisticCynic]

I've always pronounced it the first way you mentioned; I'm fairly certain that's the way you pronounce the first word at least, judging from how people say 'nota bene'.

[A Thing of Eternity]

That's how I do, but it's not Ben-Ay for me, it's ben-eh (and not the way a Canadian would pronounce that eh)... just a short e sound.

[SandChigger]

The "Guess-er-it" is closer to what the original Latin would have sounded like, but is being "more correct" worth sounding like a dork?

[TheDukester]

I never realized I did this until just now, but I definitely put a "z" sound into the second word: "Ben-ee Jezz-ur-et." It's probably how I said it to myself in my first reading, and it stuck with me. Hmmm ...

[SandChigger]

It's those wily Jesuits again!

[SandWrrm]

That's how I do, but it's not Ben-Ay for me, it's ben-eh (and not the way a Canadian would pronounce that eh)... just a short e sound.

That's more along the lines of what i would actually say, I just thought people might read eh as sounding like the vowel in Ed instead of the Canadian way.

[grandmastercrafter]

I've said: "Beh-nay Jeh-seh-ritt" for years, but found that the 'proper' pronunciation is "Beh-knee Jeh-sah-ritt" (bɛni dʒɛsərɪt, in the International Phonetic Alphabet that they use in Wikipedia)...

Like I was saying to someone else, somewhere else, sometime in the past, it doesn't really matter... languages change according to popular usage. The more people who say it a particular way can effect change in pronunciation, grammar, spelling, contractions, etc. etc... the 'rules' are made based on usages in geographical areas, and that changes over time. English itself is constantly evolving, even in our digital age, where stuff can be stored to show the way it's 'supposed' to be. All languages change (some more than others, but they all change)...

So wave your hands in the air, and say 'Beenie Gee-Sir-it' like you just don't care!

[grandmastercrafter]

It's those wily Jesuits again!

Jeh-sweets?

[A Thing of Eternity]

That's how I do, but it's not Ben-Ay for me, it's ben-eh (and not the way a Canadian would pronounce that eh)... just a short e sound.

That's more along the lines of what i would actually say, I just thought people might read eh as sounding like the vowel in Ed instead of the Canadian way.

I do actually mean eh as in Ed. I'm a bit confusing sometimes...

[SandWrrm]

That's how I do, but it's not Ben-Ay for me, it's ben-eh (and not the way a Canadian would pronounce that eh)... just a short e sound.

That's more along the lines of what i would actually say, I just thought people might read eh as sounding like the vowel in Ed instead of the Canadian way.

I do actually mean eh as in Ed. I'm a bit confusing sometimes...

Oh! Okay. I can see that making sense too, though.

[SandWrrm]

So wave your hands in the air, and say 'Beenie Gee-Sir-it' like you just don't care!

Because of this, I now love you.

[grandmastercrafter]

So wave your hands in the air, and say 'Beenie Gee-Sir-it' like you just don't care!

Because of this, I now love you.

Because of that, I love you too.