General Question

La_chica_gomela's avatar

What's the proper pronounciation of the word "haute"?

Asked by La_chica_gomela (12594points) June 5th, 2009

as in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture

Is it like “oat”, like oatmeal?

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12 Answers

mcbealer's avatar

haute ryhmes with oat
click on the bullhorn symbol to hear it

La_chica_gomela's avatar

Thanks for the link! What do you mean “rhymes with”? It sounds exactly the same to me, except the /t/ is a little shorter.

MacBean's avatar

Yup! But I hear people say it with the “h” and nobody ever cares enough to correct them.

mcbealer's avatar

@La_chica_gomela ~ I guess for my ears, oat= oh’oot and haute=oht

La_chica_gomela's avatar

@mcbealer: You say oh-oat? Really? Oat is a two syllable word for you? Where are you from?

mcbealer's avatar

@La_chica_gomela ~ ha ha, no not really, but there is a subtle length in the inflection as the sound closes

Harp's avatar

The french “au” is similar to our long “o”, but is strictly a monophthong; the lips and tongue do not change position at all throughout the voicing. The “t” sound at the end of haute is followed by a slight explosive.

marcosthecuban's avatar

@La_chica_gomela good catch! i think you’re right. even in the most neutral of american english speakers, vowel sound pronounciation tends to have a roller-coaster inflection (higher pitched, then lower pitched). spanish/french in particular needs total steady vowel sound pitch to sound authentic.

casheroo's avatar

oh man, I would have embarrassed myself trying to pronounce that.

_bob's avatar

I don’t know ‘bout them cheese-eatin’ Frenchies, but ‘round here we just call ‘em “fancy pants”.

</redneck>

Zen's avatar

www.dictionary.com has an audio feature.

mcbealer's avatar

@Zen ~ great minds think alike ;)

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