Nimoy on the Colbert Report!

[Michael]

Temis the Vorta said:

Because in French the last letter of a word is not pronounced.

If my memory from high school French class serves, that's not correct. Some ARE pronounced. (The letters c, r, f and l.) D's not on the list but "Picar" seems, I dunno, awkward.

And it's the 24th C! By rights they should be speaking some language as bizarre to us as we would be to Shakespeare. Pronunciation could have changed significantly by then.

Wikipedia says:

final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.)

And I don't think Picar sounds awkward at all.

And it's true, it's the 24th century, but is Picard's brother called Robert (with a silent "T") or Robert (with a pronounced "T")?

 

[Tralah]

The Picard Song wouldn't sound the same though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddEIICbllAI

 

[David cgc]

Belar said:
And it's true, it's the 24th century, but is Picard's brother called Robert (with a silent "T") or Robert (with a pronounced "T")?

I believe it's pronounced with a silent "t," but I haven't seen "Family" or "Generations" in a while.

Fun fact: Stephen Colbert's name is not actually French. It's Irish, and his family pronounces it accordingly. He started using the French pronunciation when he first went to college and tried to reinvent himself.