# van Rompuy (uitspraak)



## PHenry1026

Greetings:

Wikipedia gives the pronunciation of Van Rompuy as follows:

/ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpœʏ/ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Van_Rompuy)


Collins Dictionary gives the pronunciation of Van Rompuy as follows:

/vænˈrʊmpaɪ/ (http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/van-rompuy?showCookiePolicy=true)

Are both pronunciations used and is the Wikipedia pronunciation correct (should the phoneme /ʏ/ be at the end)?


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## YellowOnline

I don't know where Collins got their information from, but it is totally wrong. The Wikipedia pronunciation is right, I can only add that in informal speech the n is silent. I don't know the phonetic variation for n used here so it could be that even that is included in the Wikipedia spelling.


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## Joannes

I think Collins gives the usual pronunciation English speakers have adopted but Wikipedia's is the correct, native Dutch pronunication.



PHenry1026 said:


> should the phoneme /ʏ/ be at the end?


In the part of Flanders where he himself is from, people would have a monophtong, slightly longer [œ.] instead of diphtong [œʏ], but that is not standard pronunciation.
Some people would pronounce his name ending towards a glide, as in _buien_.


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## PHenry1026

Thanks for your insightful answers. 

If I wanted to modified the Dutch pronunciation /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpœʏ/ by replacing /œʏ/ with English only phonemes (for example  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpɜʊ/ or  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpeɪ/ or  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpɛ/), what would be the closest English phoneme replacement for /œʏ/.

You can see an IPA English Phoneme Set here: http://ipa.typeit.org/


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## YellowOnline

PHenry1026 said:


> Thanks for your insightful answers.
> 
> If I wanted to modified the Dutch pronunciation /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpœʏ/ by replacing /œʏ/ with English only phonemes (for example  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpɜʊ/ or  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpeɪ/ or  /ˌvɑn̪ˈrɔmpɛ/), what would be the closest English phoneme replacement for /œʏ/.
> 
> You can see an IPA English Phoneme Set here: http://ipa.typeit.org/



The problem is that the "ui"-sound (/œy/) doesn't exists in English - a classic problem for English speakers. Replacing it by something incorrect is, well, kind of strange. Try /ʔj/, with /ʔ/ being like the first part of "uh-oh".


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## PHenry1026

Greetings,

I tried /ʔj/, but it does not sound close.  Incorporating your suggestion (in informal speech the n is silent) and using Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (which I just got in the mail today), the closest English approximation I came up with is 

 /vɑ̃.ˈrɔm.pɜi/

Thanks for the Help


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## YellowOnline

PHenry1026 said:


> Greetings,
> 
> I tried /ʔj/, but it does not sound close.  Incorporating your suggestion (in informal speech the n is silent) and using Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (which I just got in the mail today), the closest English approximation I came up with is
> 
> /vɑ̃.ˈrɔm.pɜi/
> 
> Thanks for the Help



Forget what I said about the silent n - no use is learning non-standard language  But, more importantly, concerning the pronunciation of the end: you could go for /ɜi/ as you suggested, or for /ɜj/. Small difference and both are common.


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