How to Pronounce Buttigieg
How do you pronounce the name of the South
Bend mayor who’s a presidential hopeful?
Well, let’s listen to how he says it.
Buttigieg.
So it’s not “Pete Buttigieg”, “Pete
Buttigieg”, “Pete Buttigieg”.
It all boils down to the vowels.
Buttigieg.
The vowel in the first syllable is not like
“boo”, but like “book”.
Uh, book.
Butti-, Butti-
And the last syllable isn’t the UH syllable
like in ‘judge’.
But it’s the unstressed IH vowel, like in
‘steerage’: -ieg, ieg.
So not UH, but uh, uh.
Buttigieg.
Now, let’s talk consonants.
The T is a Flap T, which is normal for a T
between vowels in American English.
It sounds like a D. Buttigieg.
And the G.
Is it a hard G, like ‘go’, or a soft G
like ‘judge’?
GG?
JJ?
Pete Buttigieg.
Hard G, not right.
It’s a soft G. Buttigieg.
Buttigieg.
So that’s how he says his own last name.
But it sounds like he’s pretty understanding
about people just calling him Pete.
“Call me Mayor Pete.”
“That’s, that’s, that’s how he’s
known.”
That’s it, and thanks so much for
using Rachel’s English.