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Originally Posted by cocoabutter  I have a question concerning the pronunciation of the following surname-Naudé. How should I pronounce it? Thank you for help, in advance. |
It's not a common name. If I met it, I'd expect it to be pronounced something like /nəɷ'deɪ/, but if the users were French I'd make more of an effort with the vowels. Some names, initially borrowed from French, have acquired a
very English pronunciation;
Beauchamp, for example is often pronounced /'bi:ʧəm/ (and, after a few generations of living in England, even spelt 'Beecham'. So people with the name Naudé might want it pronounced /'nɔ:di:/ (note the change of stress). In other words, as so often with family names, you have to follow the preference of the owner (or your speech community - depending on which is most important to you)
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PS
Also, mispronunciation of foreign names is an interesting political weapon. Churchill - who I'm sure knew the correct pronunciation - chose to say /'nćzi:/ for
NAZI. And more recently, Thatcher used her abuse of
Galtieri's name as a weapon of war (/gćlti:eəri:/ she used to say, with 4 - nearly 5 - syllables) .
And another thing - names get Anglicized for political reasons: just before the First War, German Street in London became what it is today - 'Jermyn Street'; careful RP-speakers still use a schwa for the final vowel; and Lord Mountbatten's family name was originally Battenberg (which may have been changed either because of the war or because of the cake - which makes it sound faintly ridiculous). But I'm beginning to ramble; I could witter on for ages about family names!
How to pronounce 'Naudé' 
- I just haven't met it.
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