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Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

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Re: Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

#11

Post by Epenthesis »

yesenadam wrote: post #4
Epenthesis wrote: post #2

A good addition might be to point out good first guesses for the vowels in non-English names (Examples used assume a General American accent): * "A" as in "ah" (like "ah, I see") * "E" as in "e" in "pet", or the "ai" in "pain" * "I" as in the "i" in "pit" or the "ea" in "peat" * "O" as in the "o" in "cot" or the "o" in "cone" * "U" as in the "u" in "put" or the "oo" in "doom" (Americans might notice that this approxi…

> "A" as in the "au" in "caught" Not an expert, but I can't offhand think of a language where this is even approximately how a is pronounced—which ones are you thinking of?

* Spanish: "hacer"

* French: "pas"

* Italian: "casa"

* Mandarin (written using pinyin): "bàng"

* German: "katze"

* Japanes (written in romaji): "arigato"

* Bahasa Indonesia: "bahasa"

Note that the sounds in these various languages are not exactly the same, but the "au" in "caught" is the closest sound in the native phonological inventory of a General American speaker (given said speaker pronounces "caught" and "cot" differently).

Re: Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

#12

Post by gamegoblin »

Something that always kind of bugs me is when I am traveling at an airport in the US, and there is an announcement like “Passengers X and Y, please come to gate 7” and the announcer obviously has no idea how to pronounce non-English names. This is even in airports like LAX which see a massive number of travelers from Latin America and East Asia.

I would think that after making those sorts of announcements frequently for one’s job, one would learn just a few minor adjustments to improve accuracy.

The basic ones I can think of that would increase accuracy measurably are:

1. How to pronounce “Nguyen”

2. Spanish ‘j’ is close to English ‘h’

3. Spanish ‘h’ is silent

4. Spanish 'll' is close to English 'y'

5. Chinese ‘q’ is close to English ‘ch’

6. Chinese ‘c’ is like English ‘ts’

7. Chinese ‘x’ is close to English ‘sh’

8. Most languages do not use ‘a’ as in the American English “and”. If you have to guess, better is ‘a’ as in “father”. In general if you have to guess, the vowels of Spanish are usually going to be closer than the vowels of English for most languages.

If the airport announcers were taught these basics on day 1 it would make a tangible difference in people’s lives for so little invested effort.

Re: Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

#13

Post by eliseumds »

yesenadam wrote: post #4
Epenthesis wrote: post #2

A good addition might be to point out good first guesses for the vowels in non-English names (Examples used assume a General American accent): * "A" as in "ah" (like "ah, I see") * "E" as in "e" in "pet", or the "ai" in "pain" * "I" as in the "i" in "pit" or the "ea" in "peat" * "O" as in the "o" in "cot" or the "o" in "cone" * "U" as in the "u" in "put" or the "oo" in "doom" (Americans might notice that this approxi…

> "A" as in the "au" in "caught" Not an expert, but I can't offhand think of a language where this is even approximately how a is pronounced—which ones are you thinking of?

Apparently there's a subset of American-English speakers that would pronounce "caught" as "kaat". I've always heard it like a longer/smoother "cot" though.

I'd say a good first guess is the "a" in "about" instead.

Re: Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

#18

Post by [deleted] »

Epenthesis wrote: post #11
yesenadam wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "A" as in the "au" in "caught" Not an expert, but I can't offhand think of a language where this is even approximately how a is pronounced—which ones are you thinking of?

* Spanish: "hacer" * French: "pas" * Italian: "casa" * Mandarin (written using pinyin): "bàng" * German: "katze" * Japanes (written in romaji): "arigato" * Bahasa Indonesia: "bahasa" Note that the sounds in these various languages are not exactly the same, but the "au" in "caught" is the closest sound in the native phonological inventory of a General American speaker (given said speaker pronounces "caught" and "cot"…

[deleted]

Re: Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

#20

Post by thaumasiotes »

gamegoblin wrote: post #12

Something that always kind of bugs me is when I am traveling at an airport in the US, and there is an announcement like “Passengers X and Y, please come to gate 7” and the announcer obviously has no idea how to pronounce non-English names. This is even in airports like LAX which see a massive number of travelers from Latin America and East Asia. I would think that after making those sorts of announcements frequently…

> The basic ones I can think of that would increase accuracy measurably are:

> 1. How to pronounce “Nguyen”

You say that like there's only one way to do it.

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