Surely that isn't how the name is pronounced? But the electronic media even the BBC which used to have a special pronunciation department are saying it like that.
I can't speak Portuguese for toffee nuts but I've heard lots of it. That São sounds something like Saon, but with the -on part sort of swallowed up your nose. It's not easy to get right but San Paolo sounds better then Sow Paolo if you ask me.
EDIT: whaddya think FMR?
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 12 Jun 14 at 01:44
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You're quite right, AC.
Don't suppose the muffins will be listening though.
It won't get up my nose, fortunately. I'll only have the TV on if chaos breaks out.
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Pronounce the first word as one syllable but only half-pronounce the "n" and the "g"; thus so n g. The second is easy, powlow. That at least is how the Soa Paulians pronounced them when I was there (all 48 hours).
I don't know how any of you visiting Portugal have found, but the language seems a lot harder than Spanish. I imagine a great many Brits will be exposed to it in Brazil now. As an aside, I saw the expression "rainbow nation" dismissed in the press recently, in a piece pointing out that when it came to clips or photos of government and other big-wig events, there were few non-white faces seen. This same phenomenon was pointed out to me when I was there, in 1960.
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From this it would see that Sow is about as good an approximation of the pronunciation as the average Englishman is likely to get.
I'm sure that if the locals can live with our anglifications of Paris or Cologne, Sow Paolo will pass muster with the Portugese speakers
www.wikihow.com/Pronounce-Sao-Paulo
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 12 Jun 14 at 10:21
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Its difficult to write. It has the ao sound. ah-ow, in a clipped, nasal way.
I doubt they'll get any better than Sow Paulo, not that the Brazilians will care one way or the other.
I like Sao Paulo very much indeed, but its an acquired taste and can be quite dangerous if one is not careful.
Mind you, so can Rio.
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We were in a little town in Northern Portugal some years ago and went into a bookshop to find a phrasebook.
The guy sold us an hilarious book, produced for British football fans at (I think) the recent European championships). It's full of stuff like 'please release my friend on bail' and 'please allow me to telephone the British Consul'. I've still got it here somewhere.
It's very true that Portuguese is easy to read but darn difficult to actually speak. When I hear it it always sounds vaguely Arab.
Tomorrow we'll be lunching at a little village bar/restaurant near here run by a delightful Portuguese couple. It's amazing how many different things they can do with salt cod. And as for tripe...
They speak good French and a bit of English too.
Bom dia!
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>> When I hear it it always sounds vaguely Arab.
You're right about it looking easy enough in printed form, but to me it always sounds Slavic when spoken. Strikes me that Portuguese and Romanian are in each other's places, geographically speaking.
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Funny, I always found Portuguese easier than Spanish. Even these days when I am speaking Spanish people often query my Brazilian accent. (for "query" read "laugh at").
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>> people often query my Brazilian accent. (for "query" read "laugh at").
That's nothing comrade. I was once jeered at by two Chadian troops on the banks of the Chari river for having a weird English accent in French (probably their third language, my second of two... Africans are perforce serious multi-linguists).
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When we were in Portugal earlier last year, a waiter in a restaurant was asked by a British woman where in Yorkshire he came from! He looked Portuguese and sounded it too. I don't know if she was joking or not but I don't think so :-)
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Sow Paolo - Mike Hannon
