# pronunciation of Chopin and Mendelssohn



## Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I am wondering how Chopin and Mendelssohn are pronounced in Finland. Are they pronounced "Finnish" way?


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## Grumpy Old Man

No, just pronounce them the way they pronounced their names.


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## sakvaka

The common pronounciations are "(frederik) šo'pään" and "(feeliks) mendelsson(-barttoldi)" but no one will say to you it's wrong to utter them in the original French/German way.


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## Gavril

sakvaka said:


> The common pronounciations are "(frederik) šo'pään" and "(feeliks) mendelsson(-barttoldi)" but no one will say to you it's wrong to utter them in the original French/German way.



Insofar as you can tell, is it more common to say "šo'pään" or "sopään" in Finland?


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## sakvaka

Gavril said:


> Insofar as you can tell, is it more common to say "šo'pään" or "sopään" in Finland?



The everlasting question just popped up again. I'm not going to answer it this time, since it depends on a multitude of factors, including geographical area, the speaker's social background, the speaker's age, their interest in classical music, the structures of their phonemic organs, even on whether it's daytime or nighttime… You know this perfectly well.


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## kirahvi

In my experience most people put the stress on the first syllable in casual speech when pronouncing Chopin.

And whether the first sound is usually š or s is impossible to say, really. For most Finnish speakers their normal /s/ is already somewhat inclined towards the palato-alveolar version, so I suppose the most common sibilant there would, indeed, be sort of mix of s and š. But I remember at least one thread on this topic which turned very nasty, so maybe it's best leave this be.


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