How to Pronounce Brett Favre's Last Name

Sportscasters and fans alike, when talking about Brett Favre, pronounce his last name as “Far –Ve.” But if you pause for a moment to look at the spelling of his last name, you will notice it does not seem to match up with the pronunciation. So how should his name be pronounced and is there a correct way?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 

   Understand that when people pronounce Favre as “Far –Ve,” it is a linguistic phenomenon called “metathesis.” Metathesis occurs when two neighboring sounds in a word switch places.
   
   

   Metathesis occurs with many words in English and other languages.
   Some examples in English include "comfortable" pronounced as "comfterble," "spaghetti" pronounced as "pasghetti," and "asterisk" pronounced as "asteriks."

2. Metathesis is a controversial linguistic phenomenon. Some linguists believe metathesis is primarily the result of speech errors and childrens’ talk, and is not a regular process. Other linguists believe metathesis can be a regularly occurring process of phonology that affects only a small number of words or forms in a particular language.

3. 

   If the phenomenon of metathesis is removed from the phonological equation, the name Favre should be pronounced “Fav-Re.”

Tips & Warnings

• Check out my linguisics blog to learn more about pronunciations. http://www.walkinthewords.blogspot.com

[jcr1787]

on 10/5/2009 Hmmm, I didn't realize comments over a certain length would be truncated. It's also a shame everything is jammed into one paragraph. >sigh< Continuing my remarks about metathesis ---

In the same vein, two examples of metathesized city names come to mind:

One would think New Madrid, Missouri is pronounced New Ma-DRID like the city in Spain, but locals insist it is New MAD-rid.

One would also probably - and logically - think the pronunciation of Lake Orion, Michigan would be the same as the constellation, Or-ION. But you'd be wrong again, as locals say "ORY-on".


The english language is a lot of things, but dull isn't one of them!

[jcr1787]

on 10/5/2009 So, if "F-A-V-R-E" is pronounced FARVE, then it is only reasonable that everyone should apply that "logic" to his entire name and start calling Brett Favre, "BERT FARVE".

Another commonly mispronounced (if not metathesized) word is "kiln". The original and proper pronunciation is KILL, but the word has been mispronounced KILN for so long by so many that dictionaries now accept both pronunciations as correct, and "KILN" is often listed first and "KILL" as alternative.

I mention "kiln" in this discussion because of this bit of bio info about BERT FARVE on his official web site http://www.officialbrettfavre.com/bio/ :

- Given name Brett Lorenzo Favre
- Born in Gulfport, Miss.
- Grew up in Kiln, Miss. (pronounced KILL)

Funny that "Favre" is pronounced 'FARVE", yet they make a point of the pronunciation of the town, Kiln.


In the same vein, two examples of metathesized city names ...

[willieoh]

on 8/21/2009 Very good article, this is one of my pet peeves. Now I know the term for it :) I've had so many arguments over Notre Dame being pronounce noter dame; it's latin...look it up it's easy. It means our lady. I think some people are just too lazy to care what they say. Tahnks again 5*

[cbr4]

on 8/18/2009 Compare to Havre de Grace, Maryland. A French name. Sounds femsterish to pronounce it in the original tongue. It calls into question one's comfort with one's masculinity.

[cbr4]

on 8/18/2009 Compare to Havre de Grace, Maryland. A French name. Sounds femsterish to pronounce it in the original tongue. It calls into question one's comfort with one's masculinity.