Jacques
From Hull AWE
This name - the French form of James (see Jacobus) has several different pronunciations.
- In its native form, it ha a soft French 'j-' to start, with the vowel of 'at' and a '-k' at the end: IPA: /ʒæk/. (It sounds like a softer version of 'Jack'.)
- Most commonly in English, it sounds like 'Jake's': IPA: /dʒeɪks/, as in the name of the comic actor Hattie Jacques (1922-1980). Others who bear the surname pronounced it like the English 'Jack's', IPA: /dʒæks/.
- In Shakespeare's As You Like it, there is a character called Jacques. Here, he is pronounced as two syllables with the stress on the first: 'JAKE-wees', IPA: /ˈdʒeɪk wiːz/.
