Saw this in the local paper this morning, and found it interesting. It refers to the local USMC base, but is applicable to the bicycles as well, i guess, right?

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1584167.html

Luh-Jern

Or is the bicycle company still Leh-Zhune?

Lay June

Lay-Joon

"le-jeune"

Pretty close...second syllable pronounced "zhune" and make it nasal.

It's "Le-zhun." It wouldn't be "lay" without an accent, which it doesn't have. "Le-zhoon" is probably passable.

My "zhun" is not the "un" in "understand," BTW, but more like the "oo" in "book."

Absolutely not!

It is two syllables. The first is leu. The second is harder to describe, but could perhaps be described as "zheune"

leu zhune or lu shune

If it's a really good one, it's pronounces "Caar-ay."

+ 1.

Semper Fi.

As in French?

Duh.

It sounds like this, if pronounced correctly. It's impossible to transliterate into English. Both syllables have the same vowel sound, even though they are spelled differently. The closest vowel is the 'u' in the word "put".

The j is a soft sound.

Nope (er, mais non.) The e at the end indicates that the eu vowel is not nasalized and the "n" is pronounced normally.

The "eu" is pronounced this way: Round your lips as if to whistle (or to say "oo"). Then, without moving your lips, place your tongue to say "a" as in "chaotic." This is close, but not quite, since the tongue is pushed a little lower than for the "a" sound, but it'll do. This combination of lips and tongue doesn't occur in English, so it takes a lot of practice to get right. But once you get it, you'll never say "likoor" again.

And yes, the "j" is "zh."

"Le jeune" means "the youth", by the way. But Lt.-Gen. LeJeune is free to pronounce his name any way he likes, if you ask me. He earned it.

A Swiss turned Cajun? No wonder no one can pronounce it. Cain't unnerstand a thing they say down ther' anyway. Just ain't suthe'n.

I'm a'headed down Baton Rouge way on Sunday

From your description that sounds a lot like a German ö which would explain where English speaking people are hearing the 'r'. The brain has a way of substituting known sounds for unknown ones. Since the good General served in WWI I would assume his ancestors arrived in Louisiana in the 19th century at the latest - a period when French would still have been commonly spoken in south Louisiana so I doubt they mispronounced the name other than for maybe having a New World French accent not unlike that in Canada. Of course if they settled up north who knows what those guys would have come up with as a pronunciation. Probably Le Jern But why would you do that anyway?

All the French I know, I learned from Pepe LePew cartoons. I think I just doubled my knowledge.

I think we should consider that the French will pronounce words differently in various areas, just as we do. I crack up every time I hear a friend of mine say arnt for aunt. I was taught a definite, but not gross nasalization to the pronunciation. Here is a link to a French woman pronouncing it.

My pronunciation may not be phonetically correct, but that's how those of us who were stationed there pronounce it. This is America, we don't need to stinkin proper use of Mr. Tongue and Mr. Lip!

I have one, most likely a team or team replica bike, drilled dropouts, like Ritter's, a '69 or '70. Way back my friends called it LeJunk.

Gen. LeJeune's folks might even have come from Canada. After England gained control of what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, they tried to induce the settlers in the former French colonies, who called themselves "Acadiens", to swear loyalty to the English crown. After years of unsuccessful efforts, the English got fed up and, in 1755, in one of the great shameful episodes of our history, they rounded up the Acadiens and deported them by ship, scattering them all over the well-established British colonies to the south where they couldn't cause any trouble. Many "Cajuns" ended up in Louisiana where of course their descendents live to this day. It's a good bet that French surnames you encounter anywhere along the U.S. eastern seaboard are part of the Acadien diaspora.

However many others did eventually make their way back to our Maritimes -- it was home, after all -- earning their living from the sea because their farms had been confiscated and given to newly arriving English settlers. Modern-day Acadien culture is undergoing a revival and is quite distinct from that of Quebec next door.

That is a beautifully rendered voice file. I think I'm in love.

Over 'dere at the Jarhead Hilton?

My cousin was transferred from Camp LeJeune to Camp David. He was the best shot in the Marine Corps. He was assigned as the personal guard to President Clinton. I have a photo of him and Bill shaking hands in the Oval Office.

I'm almost sorry I taught him how to shoot my AR-15...

I trust that was as you were disappearing into the distance.

Have we ever had a thread for nicknames...such as Crampandgoslo or Shlokmano?

Yep, that's how I got to Louisiana...or my ancestors did anyway Unfortunately my grandfather was the last member of the family to speak French as his primary language. He moved to New Orleans where my father was born and that was pretty much that. If you find anyone speaking French in New Orleans today he's probably a French tourist from Paris.

I knew a guy in the Army who was of Acadien decent from Maine and his last name was Hebert which he oddly pronounced Hee-bert. I couldn't convince him otherwise

Acadiens in eastern Canada are nearly all fluently bilingual. I invite you to think about discovering your roots. Take a drive from the head of Bay Chaleur -- there, that's an example of bilingualism in action: on the other side in Quebec they call it La Baie des Chaleurs -- all the way down the eastern edge of New Brunswick and out to Cheticamp in Nova Scotia. Eat lots of lobster, listen to fiddle and banjo music, swim in the warmest salt water north of the Carolinas. Visit the National Historic Site in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, from where many Acadiens were deported and the setting of Longfellow's epic poem, Evangeline.

(Edit added to keep it on a cycling topic: Roads are bit sketchy, not the best bike tour in the world IMO.)