Ernest Csuka pronounces his name the French way - "Ssüca" or something like that (I don't know how to put the "ü" into American spelling). He also pronounces Alex Singer the French way. Even though his parents emigrated from Hungary, the family now consider themselves entirely French. I don't know whether they are able to speak Hungarian, but even among each other, they only speak (and argue!) in French.
Alex Singer, on the other hand, was very active in the Hungarian circles in Paris - I did an interview with a close friend of his and rider on his team that will be published in VBQ shortly. He talks about the social life, too. Olivier, Ernest Csuka's son, told me his family emigrated/fled in the early 1920s, when their part of Hungary was taken over by the communists in the aftermath of the Russian revolution. He said that the Singers left at the same time.
As an aside, in France, it is extremely impolite to call people by their first names unless they are close friends. So make sure you call people Monsieur and Madame xyz. If they want to get to that level of intimacy, they will address you by your first name. In that case, you can do the same. Even then, refer to them as "vous" until they specifically tell you to use "tu." Complicated, but important.
Somewhere, it was erroneously stated that Ernest Csuka is not the
proprietor of Cycles Alex Singer. Something must have got lost in
translation - he has owned the shop since the early 1960s. See also
the interview with him in VBQ Vol. 1, No. 1. Constructeur does not
necessarily mean that he makes the bikes himself (even though he
does), but that he is the person running the show. Herse was a
constructeur, even though he had a number of people working for him.
See also the glossary at the VBQ web site.
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/
> "As one who's lingually challenged, what is the > pronunciation of Alex Singer? It's not "AL-x > SING-er" as it would be in English, is it?
The question is, do you want to know how people in France pronounce that name today or do you want to know how Alex Singer himself pronounced it? I believe the latter is a matter of some debate since Singer was an immigrant from Central Europe.
The big wuestion for me is, how does Monsieur Czuka pronounce his name? Shoo-kah? Choo-kah? Zhoo-ka? Inquiring mids want to know. Cicc is simple compared to this stuff! Best regards, Fred Rednor (rhymes with Red Door) - Arlington, Virginia