Yeah but often people go with the native pronunciation for certain names. Especially in this case when there is an 'e' on the end. It's personal preference which why both are ok for the surname IMO (particularly in this case).
They're both Spanish, so you should always pronounce the final E as 'AY'. No-one (English) ever does with Tenerife though.
This is an interesting point because, although "AY" is the closest English vowel sound, they should actually not be pronounced that way. The correct pronunciation of that final E is more of a an 'eh' sound which we don't really have in English (and the E of Fonte is a truncated version which is even more foreign to us), which is why so many people struggle to pronounce these foreign names properly even if they are trying to, and if they do actually get it right they sound very odd indeed because it's a sound which just doesn't belong in an English sentence.
Well put PTF. Most foreign languages have sounds which people who grow up speaking different languages can't cope with, such as French people trying to say "the" in English, or, as you say, English speakers trying to get their tongues around Spanish or Portuguese vowel sounds. I'm reliably told it's the hardest part of teaching languages to get across, and the most important, as if you want to make yourself understood in a foreign language, a native speaker of that language can cope with your bad grammar and inadequate vocabulary, but if you can't pronounce the words somewhere close to the accepted way, you've got no chance.
Agreed, this is the point I made earlier in the thread. Speaking of pronunciations... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20553963
Good moaning. Haha. If you go on the QPR forum they are irate at some comments Barton made about relegation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20553962
I* disagree with the Ops explanation. My Wife (Portuguese) and my Brother in law (who also remembers Jose Fonte from when he played for Setubal) pronounce his name as Jo-Say (like we would pronounce the Jo if we were saying Jog) and not Joo-Se as the Op says. And the surname they pronounse as Fon-tay. So I copy them
I'm getting so confused. So you know Portuguese people who pronounce it "Jo-Say Fon-Tay"? And Adam Banana, who lives in Portugal and claims to be fluent in Portuguese, says it's pronounced "Font"?
Adkins pronounces it as Fon-tay. I would guess he would have correected it by now unless it's one of those inclub 'nudge, nudge' running jokes No not Jo as in 'Joe'. They pronounce it as Jossay Jo pronounce the same as we would say it in the word Jog. Not saying that is the correct way, just that that is the way My Portuguese brother in law says it and he was playing at Setubal at the same time (albeit only for 15 games.)
To confuse things even more the Brazilians would probably call him Fontch. They have a very interesting way of speaking that language. Try and imagine Portuguese being spoken with a Welsh accent, would be my best guess of it.
Has anyone considered there may be regional differences...for instance, there is a huge difference between English spoken in Glasgow, Sunderland and London.
Most definitely differences. Porto'nians' (<---I've english'd them) speak very differently. They often miss the end of words out. Like Spectacular (pronounced Shpectackoolarr) from a Lisbon'ian' whereas a Porto'nian' would likely say Spectac' (pronounced Shpectack.) Same as here where Geordie, Scouse, Scots accents etc are almost different languages
On the José Fonte name pronunciation, I go with Fon-teh because I understand that's what José prefers. But he's reasonably happy with anything apparently. I should imagine Oi Mush would be unacceptable, though very Southampton-like.
