How to Pronounce Buttigieg

How do you pronounce the name of the South Bend mayor who’s a presidential hopeful?

Well, let’s listen to how he says it.

Buttigieg.

So it’s not “Pete Buttigieg”, “Pete Buttigieg”, “Pete Buttigieg”.

It all boils down to the vowels.

Buttigieg.

The vowel in the first syllable is not like “boo”, but like “book”.

Uh, book.

Butti-, Butti-

And the last syllable isn’t the UH syllable like in ‘judge’.

But it’s the unstressed IH vowel, like in ‘steerage’: -ieg, ieg.

So not UH, but uh, uh.

Buttigieg.

Now, let’s talk consonants.

The T is a Flap T, which is normal for a T between vowels in American English.

It sounds like a D. Buttigieg.

And the G.

Is it a hard G, like ‘go’, or a soft G like ‘judge’?

GG?

JJ?

Pete Buttigieg.

Hard G, not right.

It’s a soft G. Buttigieg.

Buttigieg.

So that’s how he says his own last name.

But it sounds like he’s pretty understanding about people just calling him Pete.

“Call me Mayor Pete.”

“That’s, that’s, that’s how he’s known.”

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.