Pronunciation

[daniel]

Merriam-Webster gives the pronunciation of "Tesla" the way is looks to me (and probably most U.S. English speakers). The S is pronounced like the S in "simplicity." But Elon Musk pronounces it as if the S were a Z. As in "zip." Tezla.

Is this just a regional difference because Musk is from South Africa? Wikipedia gives the pronunciation of Nikola Tesla's name the same as Merriam-Webster does. Or is Musk trying to distinguish his company from the Serbian inventor he named it after by pronouncing it differently? Or does he just not know how to pronounce it? Or maybe it's a speech impediment and he cannot pronounce the letter S?

What's going on here?

Note that I am a big Tesla fanboy and I greatly admire Musk. If I ever met him the first think I would say would be to thank him for building my car. I'm just trying to figure out why he says Tezla when everyone else I've ever heard pronounces it Tesla, other than 2 or 3 people who clearly were imitating Musk's pronunciation.

 

[araxara]

See How do you pronounce Tesla? Tezla? Tessla? | Tesla

 

[daniel]

See How do you pronounce Tesla? Tezla? Tessla? | Tesla

Thank you. I didn't see that other thread. So basically, nobody knows why Elon pronounces it the way he does, most people pronounce it the way I do, and Nikola's name is pronounced with an S sound, not a Z sound.

 

[Struja]

I hate when I hear Tezzzla.

Company is named after Nikola Tesla. That's a proper name and you have to stick with what would have been "his" pronounciation. As far as I know, there is no "z" sound in Serbian. There is a "zh" but no "zed".

 

[Acho]

I hate when I hear Tezzzla.

Company is named after Nikola Tesla. That's a proper name and you have to stick with what would have been "his" pronounciation. As far as I know, there is no "z" sound in Serbian. There is a "zh" but no "zed".

In fact there is Z sound in serbian language but Tesla is pronounced as Tesla with S /not serbian myself but I know bunch of them/

 

[Struja]

In fact there is Z sound in serbian language but Tesla is pronounced as Tesla with S /not serbian myself but I know bunch of them/

Which words have the "zed" sound?

 

[Acho]

dolazi - coming up is one example

more here:
Serbian words that start with z

"z" and "zh" are completely different sounds

 

[muleferg]

Lat year I was on a river Cruise . 3 of the guys working on the ship were named Nikola. They said Tesla

 

[cpa]

I would answer that question by finding out how Mr. Tesla pronounced his own name. That would be compelling.

Pronunciation of proper names can vary even though spelling is identical. Sometimes Stephen is pronounced like Steven, and sometimes it is pronounced like Steffen.

Even common words can vary. Ask our UK cousins why clerk rhymes with bark and not jerk.

 

[Lloyd]

To retort: Do we say E-LON or EL-ON?

 

[daniel]

I hate when I hear Tezzzla.

Company is named after Nikola Tesla. That's a proper name and you have to stick with what would have been "his" pronounciation. As far as I know, there is no "z" sound in Serbian. There is a "zh" but no "zed".

Interesting. There was a similar discussion on another chat board about a different name, pronounced differently by most North Americans than by the person himself. There are many place names that we simply would not recognize when pronounced in their native language. If I told any of my neighbors that I had lived for a while in "Se-veea" they would have no idea what I was talking about. So I say Seville and make it rhyme with Bill, and they understand me. When I lived in Mexico, the people there had their own way of pronouncing my name (Daniel) and rather than complain that they were saying it wrong, I just adopted their pronunciation so they'd understand me better.

I doubt if any English speaker would be confused by Tezzzla vs. Tesssla, but it's just the way different people pronounce it. Elon Musk is from South Africa, and he probably grew up speaking South African English and Afrikaans, so we cannot expect his pronunciation to be exactly the same as ours. I just take it as an amusing quirk that he pronounces the name of his company differently than I do.