How is 'Lachenal' pronounced?

[Clive Thorne]

I was sitting musing in a hotel last night when I realised that I might not be saying Lachenal correctly.

 

I tend to say it 'Lack'nal'. Inititially I thought that perhaps it should be 'Lash-e-nal', but after a few beers realised that there could be many other ways, e.g. 'La-chenal', ' La-shenal', evn "lac-henal"  (as I say, this was after a few beers).

 

How do you pronounce it, and what is correct? How would Louis have said it?

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Clive Thorne

[Stephen Chambers]

3 hours ago, Clive Thorne said:

I tend to say it 'Lack'nal'. Inititially I thought that perhaps it should be 'Lash-e-nal', but after a few beers realised that there could be many other ways, e.g. 'La-chenal', ' La-shenal', evn "lac-henal"  (as I say, this was after a few beers).

 

How do you say pronounce it, and what is correct? How would Louise have said it?

 

Seeing that Louis Lachenal was French-speaking Swiss, I'd assume he would have pronounced it the French way - La-shenal, and certainly his great-grandson, Bill Lachenal, seemed to have had no problem with that when I met him in 2000.

 

Whilst many people seem to pronounce it Latchenal.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Stephen Chambers

[Ken_Coles]

Most of the yanks I know over here say "LASH en awl" or LAW shen awl" but this is just a regionalism. I have no idea what we should say.

 

Ken

[Mike Franch]

Okay, this is definitely thread drift, but a logical one. WheatSTONE or WheatSTUN? I've maybe only once (from a Brit) heard the "stun" pronunciation, but even in the U.S. we commonly say "LivingSTUN" (as the guy that Stanley "found"). In the U.S. I've only heard and used the "stone" for the concertina brand.

[David Barnert]

Wikipedia has both Livingstone and Wheatstone pronounced with a schwa (inverted e representing an unaccented syllable) between the t and the n.

[Andy B]

In physics it was definitely the WheatSTONE bridge (the same guy) but I've always gone with LIVINGstun for the explorer. As to the original question I've never had need to pronounce it out loud but in my head it has always been La-shenal.

[Richard Mellish]

Does "La-shenal" imply stress on the second syllable, like Laplace? I put the stress on the first syllable but I may be wrong.

[David Barnert]

3 hours ago, Andy B said:

...but in my head it has always been La-shenal.

 

35 minutes ago, Richard Mellish said:

Does "La-shenal" imply stress on the second syllable, like Laplace?

And does the first syllable rhyme with Bash or Wash?

[Paul_Hardy]

The first syllable rhymes with bash (or  lash).

 

Note that French pronunciation is very even without a lot of stress on any syllable. Unlike English, any stress there is rarely accentuates the first syllable - much more usually the *last* one. So it's probably closer to Lash-en-al, or even Lash-en-AL.

[Clive Thorne]

So is the most common view that, in the the UK at least, it should should sound a bit like 'rational'. but with an L?

Edited November 17, 2021 by Clive Thorne

[DickT]

Clive, I have always heard it pronounced that way since I first got involved with concertinas in 1969.

[Kathryn Wheeler]

Fascinating- I’d always pronounced the ch as in German pronounciation!