On: Voltswagen of America

[jeromenerf]

Pronunciation is no longer “folks wagen” but “faults wagen”. The classic German ironic sense of humor.

[zwieback → jeromenerf]

"V" can be randomly soft or hard, "Volk" is pronounced like "Folk" but "Volt" like "Wolt". THere's no real equivalent sound in English, I think.

But, yeah, I've owned several VWs and electrical wiring is usually faulty so I'll go with Faultswagen as well.

[dunefox → zwieback]

> but "Volt" like "Wolt".

Not really, it would be pronounced like the v in Vincent, not Wincent.

[zwieback → dunefox]

Yes, that's it

[saberdancer → zwieback]

Volt uses "W" sound instead of F, because Volt comes from the name of Italian physicist Allessandro Volta. Italian sound for V is W or english V.

Are there proper German words that don't read V as F? I've been lead to believe German is strict with phonem/letter combination.

[zwieback → saberdancer]

Excellent question, running through a few options in my mind "Version and Variation" come to mind. I'm not sure those qualify as a proper German words, probably not.

[tomjakubowski → zwieback]

Is my understanding correct that loan words are usually pronounced according to the donor language? (e.g. "das Handy") I seem to remember V is special somehow too, for historical reasons.

If I am reading Duden right, Version is directly a French loanword:

https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Version

while Variation is "influenced" by French:

https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Variation

[beckingz → zwieback]

woltswagon?

Is that the correction pronunciation now?

[dpkonofa → beckingz]

No. Since this is for the US division, the pronunciation would be "Voltswagen".

[zwieback → beckingz]

Yeah, that's very close. The German pronunciation would be halfway between the English F and W sound.

[pinguin7 → jeromenerf]

Not really. Volt is pronounced like a soft w, not like an F.

But they must have known that people won't know that, so you still have a valid point.

[lmedinas → jeromenerf]

I always thought the NA pronunciation was "Walks Wegon". xD.