For The Love Of Port

I thought I knew how to pronounce Niepoort - but then I heard an auctioneer pronounce it differently..

Now I have doubts. I feel the shipper who's name is probably mis-spelt more often than all others put together, deserves at least to have it's name pronounced correctly!

Perhaps one of our Dutch friends could confirm:

First syllable - is it nigh as in night or nay as in nail

Second syllable - is it a short port - a long poo-ert - or somewhere in between..?

I hate getting these things wrong!

Tom

According to Oz Clark, it's pronounced

Nee (as in need but nasally) Purt

Tom,
I would bet you can't pronounce garage, tomato, advertisement, and a host of other words correctly!
And that is mispelled, not mispelt!

Nee Port or Nea Port are the only two pronunciations I have ever heard. I believe it is the former.

Back from a week in Lisbõa...time to chime in!

Niepoort is indeed a Dutch name, and the closed I can come to an English version is: [KNEE-poart].
The "Nie" is pronounced quite sharp, more like the "Ni!" in Monthy Python's Quest for the Holy Grail 8) , while the "poort" has a long [oo] as in "board", with the "t" a the end being pronounced short and sharp as in "got".

Thanks Steven - both the auctioneer and I were getting it wrong

Tom

Glad to be able to help, Tom. Now, which Niepoort was it, and did you buy it? :)

Tom,

as you are keen on Churchillisms, why not join me in another of his?

He once said "the only thing worse than somone pronouncing a foreign word in an English accent, is someone making a failed attempt to pronounce and foreign word in a foreign accent"

....or something like that

Trouble is, my cellar is full of Talbot, Palmer, Taylor etc. - I never have been able to quite face ordering Niepoort or Ducru-Beaucaillou :? I have mixed success with Leoville Barton

Churchill was notorious for getting foreign words wrong - if you listen to his speeches, he always pronounces Nazi as "nazzi".

Two of my favourite quotes are:

"There is nothing more exhilarating than being shot at without result"

and

"You can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else"

But I digress..

The reason I was talking to an auctioneer about Niepoort was because two cases of 97 came up for sale, and I wanted to know if they were leakers. The cases were in bond, had never been opened, he didn't know - I didn't buy them!

Tom

Was it Churchill or George Bernard Shaw who said that England and the U.S. are two countries divided by a common language?

I note that the Cambridge Dictionary lists "mispelt" as past tense for mispell, while an American dictionary I consulted lists "mispelled".