"How do you pronounce 'Oels'?" Topic

I know that Brunswick should probably be pronounced Bruns-witt, but what about Oels.

Is it:

o-ells?
eels?
or is it 'oy-za' as this link says?

howtopronounce.com

It probably is the latter but it's very counter-intuitive if it is.

Kinda like Olls is how I have heard it, but have read British troops of the period pronounced it ( incorrectly) owls

The closest approximation I can type is euhls. There is a version with an umlaut over the o which makes it clearer if you speak German.

Does not an umlaut mean you sound it twice…? Bit like th chevron over an e in French. Acute accent followed by a Grave

Not so much Uh as UhEh………

But I honestly am just making this up

Bit like th chevron over an e in French. Acute accent followed by a Grave

circonflex….<8^}

Owls.

Does not an umlaut mean you sound it twice

No, that's a dieresis, which looks just like an umlaut, but is used to mark double vowel combinations that are pronounced separately and not diphthonged, as in 'naïve' or 'coöperate'.

I go with "ools"

"But I honestly am just making this up"

absolutley true, I would pronounce it öls

VW –
Dear Colleague,you are a native German speaker, so of course "Öls".
But I am a native English speaker (more or less) – trust me, it must be "Owls" for us … and be glad we can get that close!
Remember the French town "Wipers"?
:-)

Deadhead,
For l'accent circonflexe – the little hat – like î or ô – it means a letter and its sound was lost compared to old French, usually an "s"
île / isle
hôtel / hostel
tête / teste

But not always ….
théâtre
âge
dû (vs. du)
sûr (vs. sur)
I think they do not teach it anymore to young people, except where it makes a difference in the sound or meaning.

I always go by how the British military pronounce those words that Johnnie Foreigner uses.
So, how did the Duke pronounce it?

The Duke was well educated and would have pronounced it 'Öls'.

I think this all shows the rich mix of input we enjoy on this forum.

But maybe also how an older generation (ours…no apostrophe) was (not were, BTW) taught the rules of grammar.

Le Breton said it…..but shown how complex it all is.

Mini Mo has corrected me absolutely…I had meant the same vowel pronounced twice, but I forgot to say with a different emphasis. ascending and descending…or the converse……

As von Winterfeldt said, its öls. The closest I can get as an English transliteration is Urls.

Oh and Brunswick should be pronounced Braunschweig! Merry Christmas!

"Earls", rhymes with "hurls", but the R is not sounded. And the s at the end is sort of emphasised, like the last s in "pils" the beer. So, uh-lss.

"Earls", rhymes with "hurls", but the R is not sounded. And the s at the end is sort of emphasised, like the last s in "pils" the beer. So, uh-lss.

My answer too.

The way it was explained to me by my high school German teacher, it depends if you're speaking High German or Low German dialect. High is "ools;" low is "earls."

I could be totaly wrong, with pronouncing names – as Oels is a name, it could be Öls but also Ohls – we would need a Braunschweiger here, he would know it.

What they said

Le Breton

I do believe that 'Wipers' was Ypres, in Belgium

I thought the pronunciation was 'Ooells'

Paul :)

4th Cuirassier is right. I've been trying to figure out the best and clearest way to say it in English. He got it.

Even the German pronunciations vary a bit…

link

well, I see only forein pronouncations of Oels, I would opt for the Dutch one.

Oels is Silesian, no? Owned by the Dukes of Brunswick?

Shape your lips as if to say 'oh', but make a schwa sound (as in 'the') instead.

Well, most of the German pronunciation sounds like mine!

If you try this site:

link

and click on the small triangle within the circles, you will hear the pronounciation of the German word "Öl". Add an "s", as in "smart", and you hve the pronounciation of "Öls".

Braunschweig ? Here:

link

4th Cuirassier agrees with my native-German speaking Napoleonic gaming acquaintences.

This reminds me of the time I was in the Ministry of Health in Guangzhou,China. I had to say my newly adopted daughters Chinese name,part of which was "Qin". Not being a speaker of Mandarin, I pronounced it "kwin". I was chastised by the judge. She gave me a stern look and said "You say chin!". This long nosed white devil quickly reversed himself out of sheer terror.