just curious for any french students out there, how would you pronounce the word "Fea?"

The context is Fea's viper, named after a French naturalist, Leonard Fea.

I have always thought it was pronounced "Fee" - like "flea" minus the L. I have heard other people pronounce it like "Fey."

Just wanted to hear from some people familiar with French pronunciations.

Thanks

2/16/2009 2:19:56 PM

i took French in high school, which was 8-9 yrs ago

but i don't remember many pronunciations of anything being like the "flea" sound

i would guess its like "fay-uh" or "fay-ah" with the stress on the FAY

2/16/2009 5:51:11 PM

"Fey."

but then again, it's a surname which can be really tricky and vary by region, i suppose.

I don't think this is a standard french surname and it's probably related to "fay", but spelled out phonetically for some region. a quick google search of "fay" provides

Fay Surname Origin
(origin Spanish) Fe, faith. In Normandy, plantations of beech were called Faye, Fayel, and Fautlaie.

which seems plausible, but then again who knows.



[Edited on February 16, 2009 at 7:13 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on February 16, 2009 at 7:13 PM. Reason : .]

2/16/2009 6:44:20 PM

i cheated and found a website that pronounced it like 'FAY-uh'

kinda like Tea Leoni is TAY-uh

[Edited on February 16, 2009 at 7:45 PM. Reason : adfads]

2/16/2009 7:43:37 PM

thanks, guess the answer is "fey" (I don't know if I could say "Fey-uh's" viper each time I speak it, I think more people would look at me strangely than those that recognized my correct French pronunciation)

2/16/2009 8:12:00 PM

Quote :

"I don't think this is a standard french surname"

bingo, "ea" isn't a common letter combination in french--but the easy explanation is that fea was an italian not francais

2/16/2009 11:08:30 PM

when i was searching, it actually came up Leonardo Fea, so yea Italian

2/17/2009 6:47:55 AM

well shit, so the whole question was nil? I don't know where French came from.... ok, well thanks for the insight from the hypothetical question of how one would pronounce the "ea" if it were French

2/17/2009 12:16:18 PM