I read Fahrenheit 451 several years ago, and my teacher continuously stated that the pronunciation of Guy Montag was Guy (a girl and a guy) Montag (Mon-tag). My classmates and I disagreed and thought it was the slightly French pronunciation of Guy Montag (Gee Mon-tojsh). So for the official pronunciation, I came here with this post. Please post what you think it is or what the official author stated pronunciation is.

I saw it spoken on stage last evening written by the author and with him in attendence.

The first name is the American pronunciation of "Guy", and the surname is "Mon-tag", although Professor Faber called him "Moan-tahg".

Thank you very much for your response, and a speedy one at that. I was not expecting a reply for some time. Thank you once again.

And don't forget: Faber was the name of a pencil and I believe that Montag was the name of a tablet of paper, both well known and used by the author.

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Originally posted by HuntGather98:
...Please post what you think it is or what the official author stated pronunciation is.

I just listened to the beginning of the HarperCollins audiobook of Fahrenheit 451, read by the author himself. He pronouces it... exactly as your teacher does!

(I think your French style pronunciation is unlikely, since "Montag" is a German word, meaning "Monday". The German pronunciation would be similar to what Doug Spaulding described, "Moan-tahg". I think people familiar with German would instinctively pronounce it in this way. However, the character in F451 is American, not German.)

Ja, warlich!

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Originally posted by patrask:
And don't forget: Faber was the name of a pencil and I believe that Montag was the name of a tablet of paper, both well known and used by the author.

And, of course, who can forget this fine namesake: (philnic: by the way, why the somewhat cold shoulder of Fahrenheit scale in the UK?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit

Does the author pronounce the second syllable as "tog" or "tag"? I know he pronounces his own name Brad-berry, not Brad-bury.

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Originally posted by dandelion:
Does the author pronounce the second syllable as "tog" or "tag"? I know he pronounces his own name Brad-berry, not Brad-bury.

Definitely "tag" - see my post above.

I thought the whole of North America pronounced him "Brad-berry". Whereas most Brits call him "BRAD-bri"

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Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
(philnic: by the way, why the somewhat cold shoulder of Fahrenheit scale in the UK?)

Nard, it's a generational thing. A lot of people over 50 still use Fahrenheit, and claim not to understand Celsius. Most people under 50: vice versa.

The UK is mightily confused with its units. For a couple of decades, all school children were exclusively taught in the European system - kilograms, metres, etc - but politicians were too cowardly to force businesses to use these measurements, so the older units - pounds, feet and inches - continued to be used for trade. This led to a whole generation of people who were rather confused about how to measure things!

Fairly recently, we had legislation that finally made it a requirement for European units to be used in trade. However, we still drink beer by the pint, we still observe speed limits in miles per hour, and most people still measure their height in feet'n'inches and their weight in stones. (Bonus point for the first American on this board to explain what the heck a stone is.)

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Originally posted by philnic:
However, we still drink beer by the pint...

Well, as long as you still drink beer, that's the important thing! Nothing like a lukewarm pint of stout for breakfast.

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Bonus point for the first American on this board to explain what the heck a stone is.

Fourteen pounds, is it not? (pounds as in libras, not currency!)

Bonus point goes to Spaulding!

Excellent! I'm saving them up, you know (bonus points, not stones).

I am just glad that no one got stoned after that query.

I dub thee 4E Jr.