Since October 7, 2023 and the new outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we have heard a lot on the airwaves, here as elsewhere in the French-speaking world, the English pronunciation of the names “Israel” and “Israeli”. Many journalists, experts and ordinary citizens speak of “Izrael” and “Izraelis” instead of saying Israel And Israelis. Because, in French, the s is pronounced like a z when it is between two vowels (for example, “muslim” is pronounced muzulman), but keeps its value of s when it is between a vowel and a consonant, as is particularly the case for the words “Israel”, “Israeli”, “Israeli-Palestinian”, “Islam” and “Islamic “.
It is under the influence of English, to which current events constantly expose us, that we commit this phonetic Anglicism since, in English, we pronounce the s like a z between a vowel and a consonant, hence the pronunciations Izrael, Izraelis, Muzlimsetc.
I dare to hope that this little word will not be a dead end and that it will encourage some readers to correct this pronunciation that is too widespread in our media.
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