How to pronounce Goudey and Bowman?

[RCMcKenzie]

I'm going to try and refresh my recollection and defer to the experts if I misstep. I started a thread about Goudey a few years ago. It was shown on another website that a descendant of the card company founders pronounced it "Gowdy", the Americanized way that I have pronounced it since the 70's. However, the correct French pronunciation is probably "Goo-deh". I always called Larry Lajoie..."La-joy" like the NASCAR driver, and was told that I should say La-shoo-wey. I thought Bowman was settled at Bowman, but I'm here to learn.

[Casey2296]

I read somewhere that Lajoie is pronounced Laj-wa.

[G1911]

I've always said:

Gow-dee

Bowman, like bowman as in an archer.

[Al C.risafulli]

Per a member of the Goudey family: GOW-dee.

-Al

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I read somewhere that Lajoie is pronounced Laj-wa.

Correct.

Lajoie's father was French-Canadian and I believe possibly his mother.
I live in Montreal now and when asked, as the name is still found in the province, several people told me it is pronounced "Laj-wa" in French, and never as three syllables.

[Snapolit1]

Thought it was pronounced Laj-a-way.

[Snapolit1]

How someone pronounced their name is obviously a different question than how others would pronounce it. If you ask people who speak Italian how my family name is pronounced I suspect few of them would accurately say how my name is commonly pronounced in the US among non Italian speakers. And I'm sure this was even more true 100 years ago when foreign names were probably not considered particularly desirable in many parts.

[profholt82]

Yes, Lajoie is a French-Canadian name. They pronounce it Lah-zhwah. You could say Lah-jwah as well, but it's usually said a little softer than that. There is a popular Canadian comedian who used to be on the tv series 'The League' who is named Jon Lajoie, and that's how he pronounces it as well.

For the others, I used to say Goo-Dee when I was a kid, but over the years I've heard just about everyone else say Gow-Dee. And Bowman is pronounced like Bo Jackson or a bow in your hair, not the bow of a ship.

[bobbyw8469]

I always heard GOW - Dee (like rhyming with Cow Pee)

and BO - Man (Like rhyming with Roman)

[Seven]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

How someone pronounced their name is obviously a different question than how others would pronounce it. If you ask people who speak Italian how my family name is pronounced I suspect few of them would accurately say how my name is commonly pronounced in the US among non Italian speakers. And I'm sure this was even more true 100 years ago when foreign names were probably not considered particularly desirable in many parts.

Many Foreign names were butchered when people immigrated over here as well. My Mothers family comes from Calabria, their last name, whatever it was, got changed to the town they were from in Italy, which was Longobardi.

[egri]

Originally Posted by Seven

Many Foreign names were butchered when people immigrated over here as well. My Mothers family comes from Calabria, their last name, whatever it was, got changed to the town they were from in Italy, which was Longobardi.

Same thing happened to Vito Andolini, of Corleone.

To add another butchered French-Canadian name, my maternal grandfather's last name, Martineau, is pronounced "Mart-no". Everyone outside the family who I've heard pronounces it "Mart-in-oh".