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Claiming Our Place In The English Language


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Which combination of instruments do you have to play to get to be an 'AngloCon' Bishop these days ?? B)

No, no! An "anglo con" is someone trying to pawn off a Jeffries duet as a Jeffries anglo.

 

However, Father Charles Cohen (I know him as "Father Charlie") is an anglo-playing priest, though not -- as far as I know -- a bishop.

 

Pun added later (surprised I missed it the first time round!): But then Father Charlie is an "anglo-Cohen".

Edited by JimLucas
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How about being called just a plain old bellower.

 

Is a former player who begins again one who returns to the fold(s)?

 

Or when a concertina player comes to the session, do players shout,"look out bellow?"

 

Is an overweight concertina player a portabellow?

 

And while we're here, how is Lachenal pronounced? Is it more like "lack" or "latch" or is the "o" like that in "lock"? Just curious. I live on the moon--well, Montana, actually, and don't run into concertina players out here to inform me of such things.

 

Have fun,

 

JIm

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And while we're here, how is Lachenal pronounced? Is it more like "lack" or "latch" or is the "o" like that in "lock"? Just curious.

My impression is that I've always heard it as LASH-'-NAL with the A's in the accented first and last syllables short (as in "bat") and the unaccented middle syllable swallowed like the second syllable of "fashion."

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How to pronounce Lachenal?

 

David gave one way, but I've heard several others, though most are minor variations. Usually the main accent is on the first syllable, with some people putting a secondary accent on the last syllable, others not. Occasionally, I've heard it pronounced with the main accent on the last syllable. Always the "ch" is pronounced like "sh". So here are the main variations I've heard used by more than one person:

 

AL - as in AL-len

ALL - as in ALL :)

ULL - as in nULL

LAH - as in LAH-de-dah

LA - as in LAsh

EH - as E in bEt

U - as U in bUt

' - is an almost imperceptible "vowel"

 

LAH sh' nall (this is more or less how I say it)

LAH sh' n'l

LA sh' n'l

la sheh NAL

lah sheh NALL

LAH shuh NALL

LAH shuh null

 

Take your pick. :)

 

Of course, if we really wanted to be "correct", we might

..1) Try to find a Lachenal descendant and see how she pronounces it.

..2) Ask Neil Wayne how Tommy Williams (who worked for Lachenal) pronounced it during his interview. (Is there an audio tape?)

..3) See if there are any other (perhaps unrelated) Lachenals alive today and see how they pronounce it.

 

I'll leave that to you. ;)

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Jim,

 

I was amused to think of all the others like me sitting here trying all your pronunciations. Some have a distinct US feel.

 

May I add another pronunciation I hear often. It is LACK en al.

 

It would not surprise me to hear this is a common (as opposed to correct) pronunciation in English because it anglicises the word.

 

Good suggestions on tracking down the pronunciation. In the London phone book there is only one, with an interesting wrinkle...

 

W.S. La Chenal (020) ********

 

Chris

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Of course, if we really wanted to be "correct", we might

..1) Try to find a Lachenal descendant and see how she pronounces it.

..2) Ask Neil Wayne how Tommy Williams (who worked for Lachenal) pronounced it during his interview.  (Is there an audio tape?)

..3) See if there are any other (perhaps unrelated) Lachenals alive today and see how they pronounce it.

Since Louis Lachenal was (I believe) a Belgian, we could add

 

..4) Find a Belgian concertina player and ask him/her.

 

So I think I shall send an email to my old mate Guido Bos and ask him. Watch this space!

 

Chris

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Since Louis Lachenal was (I believe) a Belgian...

Chris

 

When Louis Lachenal really was a Belgian, it is very well possible that his name was written like La Chenal, which can be translated as "the channel".

 

The observation of the "other" Chris that there is an entry in the London phonebook "W.S. La Chenal (020) ********" is interesting in this respect.

 

Chenal should be pronounced more or less like this:

The Che part like "shut" (without the t).

The a in nal should be pronounced as the a in after.

 

 

Henk

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;) Can't pronounce anything because I have laryngitis, so I'll go back to naming concertina players. This thread has been so much fun.

 

Male concertina player - bellowfellow

Laid back tina player - mellowbellow

Timid player (me) - yellowbellow

Timid player who eats maple syrup on pancakes - yellowbellowed sap sucker.

 

Helen

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Hi Jim,

 

In reply to yours,

 

I had a listen this afternoon to one of my old tapes and Tommy Williams favoured :- ' LA sh' n'l '.

In view of his pretty strong accent I suspect that most Americans might struggle to understand a lot of what, a probably toothless, Tommy actually says on the tape!

For those interested, the tape is called 'Springtime in Battersea' and has some of his superb duet playing interlaced with anecdotes and recollections from when Tommy was a concertina tuner/maker and repairer for Lachenal and others. Perhaps someone could tell us if this is currently available on cd anywhere? My tape must be well over 20 years old and is getting decidedly tatty.

 

In my experience, in the UK at least, the above pronounciation shares roughly equal popularity with Latch-e-n'l, the concertinas themselves also being fondly referred to as 'Latchboxes'

 

Regards

 

Dave

Edited by Dave Prebble
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Chenal should be pronounced more or less like....

Ah, yes. The trouble with "should be" is that it's nearly always context dependent. ;)

 

Certainly the ancient Greeks would have had difficulty understanding the English pronunciation of "biology". We even have the officially acceptable word/spelling "repertory", because that's how so many people for ages have "mis"-pronounced the French "repertoire".

 

When it comes to names, I've heard cousins pronounce the same family name differently. The Polish/German spelling of the name "Pawlowski" led my friend to give up trying to teach people to say "Pav-lahv-ski", and to start pronouncing her own name "Pah-louse-key". The best one, though, was a Polish co-worker, Joanna Rzepecki. That surname should be (approximately) "Zhe-pet-ski" (where "zh" is the "z" in "azure"), but Americans seeing it written never came close. She finally threw up her hands and put a new sign on her cubicle, reading "Joanna Rice Krispies". :)

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In my experience, in the UK at least, the above pronounciation shares roughly equal popularity with Latch-e-n'l, the concertinas themselves also being fondly referred to as 'Latchboxes'

This, from the folks who pronounce "Stagi" as "Staggy." :)

.....I thought it was supposed to be pronounced "stodgy". ;)

 

..........Or if you're burnin' out a fast reel, maybe a "stogie"?

 

...............Or if you're overacting with it, "stagey"?

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