France's new prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has triggered confusion and embarrassment in Arabic-speaking countries — because his surname sounds like their word for 'penis'.
Newsreaders in Arab nations have swiftly come up with a host of strategies to avoid pronouncing his name correctly.
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| Lost in translation: Newsreaders in Arab nations have begun mispronouncing Jean-Marc Ayrault's name to avoid embarrassment |
In French, the name is correctly pronounced 'Eye-ro'.
But certain states are saying his name with an 'h' at the beginning, while in other countries they are saying it as 'Arrow' to avoid uttering the word properly, French daily newspaper France Soir reported.
The French foreign ministry has even been forced to issue 'alternative pronunciations' of his name to avoid embarrassing Arab speakers.
France-Soir said: 'The ministry has sent out a press release to the Arabic media, telling them how the name should be said in French.
'But it also says that Mr Ayrault finds it acceptable that they pronounce all the letters of his name, including the "l" and the "t" at the end, so that it sounds like "Eye-rolte".'
The French themselves changed the spelling of Russian president Vladimir Putin's name to 'Putine', because it sounded like 'putain' - the French word for prostitute.
In recent years, the English-speaking media has also had problems with pronouncing the name of French radio and TV host Yvan Le Bolloc'h.
© Daily Mail, London
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