The Auswine Forum

correct pronunciation is moh ett and sorry to the person before but perrier-jouet is per ree yay joo ett. It has all to do with the little dots above the e.

Having been through the Moet et Chandon caves in Epernay I can assure you it has a hard 't'.

The guides didn't pronounce it like 'poet' either - the 'o' is not distinctly pronounced, more like 'm-wet'.

My vague recollection is that it is because Moet was of germanic origin.

Rob

I cast my vote for Mo-ay. I think the t is not hard at all but rather decidedly flaccid. If your from Queensland of NZ you have to say Mo-ay.....ay.

is this another of those competitions that will go on and on ... NN

It's actually a dierisis, not an umlaut (though the two look identical), and the correct pronunciation is m-WET. It is Dutch, not German or French. Moe is the town in Victoria.

mgbourne wrote:It's actually a dierisis, not an umlaut (though the two look identical), and the correct pronunciation is m-WET. It is Dutch, not German or French. Moe is the town in Victoria.

Yeah, I lived in Moe for 2 long years in 69-70 and taught Maths and Science subjects at at Moe HS. Nothing champagne-like there, although I often heard that some of the year 8 girls were quite fresh, bubbly and approachable although young (when they weren't tearing each others hair out).

One of the few places where you could hang out clean washing and bring it back in dirty with coal dust if the winds blew the wrong way.

Is this the the infamous MG (Mick) Bourne of Canberra (at various times and currently)?

Adam is correct it is MOW ETT

I asked this question to a guy who was pretty high up in the moet business and his reply was as above.

Mr Moet was not french

Mo Aye maye sound more sophisticated but it also ignorant.

The 't' is sounded. How can you tell? Well, it's the same one that's not pronounced in the middle of 'Montrachet', and obviously to keep the universe in balance it has to go somewhere - and up the road to Epernay was the place.

cheers,
Graeme

You guys!!! I have to admit being impressed about a bunch of Aussies debating on how to pronounce french for 22 posts.

About the Dutch origin. Claude Moet was living in France in the 1700s so let's forget about how the Dutch pronounciation should be. After all, how would you feel if some German guy came over the Barossa today to tell you how to pronounce Langmeil ?

IMHO, the "t" in Moet is probably mute. But in Moet et Chandon, a hard "t" comes out, and that one comes from Moet, not from "et". If the company was called Moet a Chandon, the "t" would come out hard, not mute.

Hope this makes sense. Then again remember, this comes from French, where the exception is the rule.

Cheers,

Francois

Maximus wrote:Apparently you and I are duelling off for one of Drew's VP's?

Cheers,

I'm not confident. No debt to me now.

Graham

Francois, I'm not that impressed, the readily verifiable factual answer was provided early on (with sound even!) and yet some people chose and still seem to choose to ignore the facts! Merde!

Fact 1: The key is in the accent on the ë: Moët, forcing a flat e as in the poet, the only other argument is the emphasis of the sound of the t: et or ett or ette and the length of the o sound. THE T IS SOUNDED! Just because in most english printings the accent on the e is not shown doesn't change the proper french pronunciation.

Fact 2 (if the first isn't enough), the t is indeed pronounced by those who should know best, long-term staff at the Câves of Moët et Chandon in Épernay.

Anyone can choose to pronounce it any way they like, but if you want to pronounce it like the french do then even across the various french accents and varying pronunciations, the t is always sounded to some extent, even for the single word Moët without the "et Chandon".

If you don't believe me make the trip and listen for yourself.

End of rant and hopefully the end of this thread.

I just dont get it that this debate has gone on for so long.

The t is sounded as many have pointed out. Moet is now a brand name, and if the management team from Moet say the t is sounded, then it is. Final. No correspondence. This isnt a matter of language, it is now a piece of marketing.

How would everyone feel if someone arrived from Spain and told us the j in Majella is prononced as a y? It just isnt. It also originates from someone's name and is now a brand.

Off soapbox now.

AB

I went to the Moet La Promenade Party last night, great night, freeflow champagne...glamorous fashion show, good music...got through about 8-10 200ml mini bottles, drank from one of those funnels that go in the top of the bottle...started off the night pronouncing it Moet with a hard T and nearer the end of the night it became more like moayyyeeish...

So there you go...

Adam is right: the more you drink, the less the "T"comes out...

Just a bit more info, because I believe this topic is so worthy of more discussion...

The little thingies above the letter e (I know, I'm getting too technical) have nothing to do wether you pronounce the T or not. Their purpose is to signify that the immediate preceding vowel must be pronouced separately. This applies to the letters e, i and u only.

We can therefore conclude that there is definitely no "W" in the correct pronounciation. But what about that damn "T". Man, I can't sleep anymore...


Cheers,

Francois [/img]

Raisin wrote:The little thingies above the letter e (I know, I'm getting too technical) have nothing to do wether you pronounce the T or not. Their purpose is to signify that the immediate preceding vowel must be pronouced separately. This applies to the letters e, i and u only.

The presence of the dieresis altering/enforcing the sound of the e does also kill the unaccented et = ay (ie no t sound) option, so it is indeed relevant.

As the originator of this thread, let me say that I am delighted to have been the source of such heated debate.

I am particularly pleased that the debate raged on despite hard evidence in favour of the "T". As a result, I will now go off and start a thread on evolution vs "intelligent design"...

Cheers Manning (who always thought it was mow-ett in the first place).

PS - for an good laugh on the evolution debate, see http://www.venganza.org

I would shorten TORB's pronunciation and just say "frog bubbles" I like that alot.