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How do you pronounce Young tableaux? Does it sound just like its singular form?

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    yes, just like its singular form2012-02-04
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    @stefan: Not in English.2012-02-04
  • 7
    I am happy enough if it is not pronounced Tab-lox. About the plural indication, I might not be upset by an $s$ sound.2012-02-04
  • 6
    @AndréNicolas : OK, I'll say "tab-lee-uks" and you'll be "happy enough".2012-02-04
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    Just make sure you _never_ write "tableaux" when you mean only one of them. For some mysterious reason (probably distraction by questions of (non-)pronunciation) about half the English-speaking authors make this error at some point.2012-07-29

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It depends on whether you’re pronouncing it in French or in English. In French tableau and tableaux are pronounced the same; in English tableaux is pronounced as if it were spelled tableaus, with a /z/ at the end. In fact, the plural can be spelled either tableaux or tableaus in English.

Added: The only pronunciation of the plural given by Merriam-Webster Online is what could informally be written \TAB-loze. The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed. offers tăb"lōz', tæ-blōz" (where I’ve used " and ', respectively, for their bold and light symbols for primary and secondary stress). The Random House Dictionary (via Dictionary.com) offers /tæˈbloʊz, ˈtæbloʊz/, the same two pronunciations in the opposite order, and has a sound file for the first one. The OED and the Collins English Dictionary $-$ Complete and Unabridged, which are the two British dictionaries readily available to me, offer both the /-z/ pronunciation and the pronunciation identical to the singular.

It appears, therefore, that in British usage the plural may (but need not) be pronounced identically to the singular; I have never heard this pronunciation in the U.S., however.

  • 8
    I have never heard the English pronunciation you describe. Where have you encountered it?2012-02-04
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    @Chris: I have no idea why you’ve not encountered it, since it’s the bog standard English pronunciation of the plural. Click on the sound file by *tableaux* [here](http://mw4.m-w.com/dictionary/tableau), for instance. In pseudo-phonetic spelling, the English plural is \ta-BLOZE\ or \TAB-loze\, both being acceptable.2012-02-04
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    +1 to Chris's comment. I have *always* heard the plural being pronounced exactly the same as the singular (though it may be different in the US).2012-07-29
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    Me too: I have never heard the x pronounced (but it may be because most people I have heard probably also speak French)2012-07-29
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According to Wikipedia, tableaux is the British version of the plural, and gives tableaus as the US English version. Therefore, I would go with 'ta-blows'.

  • 0
    "Therefore, I would go with 'ta-blows'." -- assuming you are in the US...2012-02-07
  • 1
    In a mathematical context, using an -s would be weird.2012-07-29