>>>Whan te Normans invaded one of their barons/lords (whatever) took an estate that he probably thought was a "fine place" and called it "beau lieu" -> Beaulieu, but its pronounced "BYOO-lee"
>>>
>>>Americans are just as much at fault: "Notre Dame" (Notr Dam) becomes Noterdaim.
>>>
>>>>Is there another word that uses that concept? Should I be saying 'hergraph', or 'hertov cocktail'? How about pleading 'ner contendere', or getting on a horse to play 'per'? ;)
>>>
>>>Don't understand this lot!
>>But everone knows that if you're talking about "Noterdame" it's the school. "Notradame", on the other hand, is that big church in France (grin).
>>
>>Oh, but it gets better in the South.
>>
>>Bayou, depending what part of the South, get pronounced "Buy-you" or "Buy-Oh"
>>
>>Here in Austin we have Manor (May-nor) Road, that lead to the town of Manor (May-Nor). We also have the town Elgin (El-gin) but in Houston there's Elgin (El-jinn) Street.
>>
>>There's also Manchaca (Man-chak) Road and the town of Manchaca (Man-chock-a).
>>
>>And I won't even start up on the bastardization of the German, Czech and Spanish names/words around here....but I'll give a couple of examples...
>>
>>We've got Kay-nig (Koenig) Road, the town of Bernie (Boerne) and the town of Green (Groene)
>
>
>I worked with a guy named Doug Koenig and he pronounced it kay-nig. I suspect that is the authentic German pronunciation.

And I suppose you're Mr Bay-ann (French name recall)?

I think the "oe" diphthong is a bit like a soft "uurr". So said quickly in English it would sound like "ay"