cedilla
9.Sep.2005 5.57am
cedilla's picture

A quick one...
How do you pronounce Neue? Like in Helvetica Neue?

Is it à la German: [noy]
Or something like that?



dan_reynolds
9.Sep.2005 5.58am
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It IS German. It means “new”, and is pronounced something like “noy-a”


cedilla
9.Sep.2005 7.40am
cedilla's picture

Great ! That’s what i thought.
My german isn’t what it use to be...

Thanks Dan.


Chris Rugen
9.Sep.2005 8.24am
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Yeah. Unfortunately most U.S. designers call it Helvetica New (in a more French pronunciation).


Norbert Florendo
9.Sep.2005 8.39am
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Guess you don’t own a noy-uh Porsh-uh!


cedilla
9.Sep.2005 10.50am
cedilla's picture

Yeah. It’s nice to see a font not having it’s name translated to English.
But since i’m french, it’s sounds more like “Helvetica noeud”.


dezcom
9.Sep.2005 10.56am
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I don’t even have an old 356c Norbert :-)

ChrisL


Norbert Florendo
9.Sep.2005 11.38am
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What I drive is more like a box than a Boxster.


dezcom
9.Sep.2005 12.09pm
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You mean you drive a Cab instead of a Cabriolet:-)

ChrisL


Norbert Florendo
9.Sep.2005 12.28pm
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Chris, that’s no fare! :(


Dan Weaver
9.Sep.2005 1.11pm
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I don’t drive at all but I ride my bike and I don’t consume $4 a gallon fuel.


hrant
9.Sep.2005 1.39pm
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Dan, you’re lucky. In LA if you don’t have a car, you’re scum. Not that I don’t enjoy driving per se - I love it. Except that there’s no real point in this environment these days.

hhp


Dan Weaver
9.Sep.2005 1.47pm
Dan Weaver's picture

Hrant I haven’t had to drive a car since I moved into NYC 12 1/2 years ago. Subways, trains and my bikes and of course walking are the best ways to get around the metropolitian area. When do you think oil futures will hit $100 a barrel (Christmas?).


hrant
9.Sep.2005 1.54pm
hrant's picture

Whenever the oil companies think is a good time.

hhp


Dan Weaver
9.Sep.2005 1.56pm
Dan Weaver's picture

Hrant, Oil Futures are set by Wall St. Its their guess on what the oil companies think.


dezcom
9.Sep.2005 2.02pm
dezcom's picture

All is fare in this brave neue world :-)

ChrisL


Eric_West
10.Sep.2005 8.23am
Eric_West's picture

I looked up on this :

http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&lang=en&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&relink=...

1st listing, click on the speaker. It says ’noy’ ?


Norbert Florendo
10.Sep.2005 8.34am
Norbert Florendo's picture

It says ‘noy’ ?

Now that’s a-noy-ing!


dezcom
10.Sep.2005 10.14am
dezcom's picture

Good thing it isn’t Elliot Noyes:-)

ChrisL


cedilla
10.Sep.2005 10.51am
cedilla's picture

Thanks Eric! That website is great!
And at least, it solves the problem of trying to write the sound phonetically.

No + Oil = Noil
It’s pretty close to Neu.

Regarding the gas price, I just don’t understand this :
when the price of the oil barrel goes up, the price at the gas station goes up THE SAME DAY. Hey, the fuel I’m putting in my car right now has been refined many days/weeks ago.

I don’t own a car, but I know there are pretty cool hybrid cars coming from Honda and Toyota. And I’m sure many european companies will offer these soon.
We have to think green!


timd
11.Sep.2005 2.05am
timd's picture

Because Helvetica is a feminine word the adjective takes the feminine case, neue. And is therefore pronounced noya. This is stretching the limits of my remembered german, so I hope this is correct and please don’t ask me to say why Helvetica is feminine.
Tim


Dan Weaver
11.Sep.2005 4.07am
Dan Weaver's picture

Chevy is also developing hybreds using hydogen and the park police here have been using the Toyota gas/electric hybreds for the last couple of years. The taxi commission (geniuses) have decided to let taxi companies the option of purchasing hybreds rather than the gas guzzlers they now drive. One other thing about hybreds is they make almost no noise. That electricity is stealthy quiet.


timd
11.Sep.2005 4.46am
timd's picture

http://www.dtu.dk/English/About_DTU/News.aspx?guid={E6FF7D39-1EDD-41A4-BC9A-20455C2CF1A7}

Don’t let oil companies know about this.
Tim


dan_reynolds
11.Sep.2005 4.49am
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Helvetica could be feminine in German for three reasons:

1. The word for writing and/or a typeface (Schrift) is feminine: die Schrift. In German, Helvetica (or any other typeface name) is often used in context, i.e., die Helvetica Schrift

2. Helvetica is derived from the Latin name of Switzerland, Confederatio Helvetia. In Latin, I think I can remember that Helvetia is a first declention noun, and therefore feminine. So Helvetica would be feminine because the Latin Helvetia is feminine.

3. Switzerland in German is also feminine, die Schweiz, maybe because of the Latin root? Not all nation-names are feminine in German, though. Germany and France are both neutral (Deutschland and Frankreich) because their suffixes (Land and Reich) are also neutral nouns (das Land and das Reich… country and empire, respectively).

Lastly, at Linotype (where German in spoken), all typeface names are feminine. This must be because of reason number 1, I guess.

I do not know what the gender of Font is, however.


Eric_West
11.Sep.2005 6.24am
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Tim,

Yeah, they’d probably send their best assassins/suicide bombers to take care of that.


cedilla
11.Sep.2005 7.14pm
cedilla's picture

Thanks again Dan! You’re the best.


thierry blancpain
12.Sep.2005 12.13pm
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the only thing id add here is that “neue” isnt really pronounced noya, but noye with the e like in “feminist”.

timd: you mixed something up. something is “neu” (new), but its the “neue” (new one). this has nothing to do with feminine or masculine - there are no cases for adjectives in german.


timd
13.Sep.2005 10.23am
timd's picture

thierry blancpain
17.Sep.2005 1.58pm
thierry blancpain's picture

well, yes. i played this through in the train today and there are some adjectives that change, and some dont. neu is one that doesnt. “die neue schrift”, “der neue baum”, “das neue buch” (the new font, the new tree, the new book, all three cases are the same). i just didnt think about any other adjectives, thats why i wrote that (wrong) thing about no cases for adjectives in german.