Beaucastel pronounciation

Friends who spend a lot of time in France, including the Rhone region, pronounce Beaucastel with emphasis on the first syllable, like “BO-castel.” My wife can’t understand how that is possible unless French people pronounce it that way at Beaucastel. I would think the emphasis would be on the last syllable, like most French words, or second to last syllable, if its end is pronounced “ella,” as one might hear it pronounced in France. Does anyone know if, or possibly where, it is ever proper to place emphasis on the first syllable?

[David M. Bueker]

The one time I heard it pronounced by a Perrin (owners) the emphasis was actually quite even. There was a hint of extra emphasis on the "stel" but not much.

It's been over 30 years since I took French (even my English pronunciation is suspect), but my memory is that typically there is not syllabic stress in words alone, but only in final syllable of phrase.

Yea, pretty much what David said. And M. Perrin said it many times as I sat with him in his office and later as we sampled through a multi-year vertical of his glorious (and occasionally bretty) wines for most of a sunny afternoon.

So I'm thinking I have it on good authority.

Thanks, Guys. We can put that one to bed. My wife loves it so I guess she wanted to make sure she was pronouncing it correctly. I seem to remember the 1988 being spectacular. Of course many years are.

[David M. Bueker]

Covert,

Check Noel Ermitano's thread on the first page. He just had a lovely bottle of 1999 Beaucastel.

[Robin Garr]

It's been over 30 years since I took French (even my English pronunciation is suspect), but my memory is that typically there is not syllabic stress in words alone, but only in final syllable of phrase.

Yep, Dale and David hit it right: There's much less variation in stress in French syllabification than English, so it's hard for our ears to hear much differerence between the three syllables when we hear it spoken in French.

Like many of us here, I've heard M. Perrin say it, and I'd say "bo-cah-stel" comes plenty close enough to order a glass over the tasting room bar.

From a French professor: there is syllabic stress in simple words, but it is much more noticeable in the end of phrases. There are not that many recognisable dialects in French, but the one Mr Perrin speaks is the easiest one to distinguish, and yes, they tend to say [BO-ka-stel] rather than the standard [bo- ka-STEL].

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

http://heracleums.org/tools/pronunciati ... eaucastel/

However, I don't think that the person saying those three words comes from Provence, so I defer to Fredrik.