Admittedly, I'm more used to Québécois French, but the recording contains what has to be one of the oddest pronunciations of "ben" I have heard. I expect it to rhyme with "hein" or "en", but I swear the recording is closer to "bamme" than anything else.
Am I missing something, or has my ear glitched? Please let me know.
Hi Dan,
I see what you mean, it certainly has a bit of 'Mediterranean' pronunciation to it but it didn't shock me.
When you record something you are concentrating on so many things that this can happen.
In the région parisienne,
ben ! ( forme populaire de 'bien')
would be pronounced like
'hein !' pain, main etc.
It is pronounced like 'en' as you suggest in words borrowed from Latin or Greek like
agenda, examen, benzine, placenta
But 'en' will be pronounced differently in -
en allant en Angleterre
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