Foreign names

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

We require from newsreaders and the like a certain level of intellegence and articulacy. Obviously they can't be expected to know all languages, but it's possible to learn the basic phonetics of the most common in an afternoon, and in any case there's the internet and sites like Forvo where things can be checked. I have just heard someone on Radio 5 pronounce the name of Wolfgang Schäuble as, roughly, 'Wolfgang (with an English W) Shubble'. Where is Aurifex to rant when you need him?

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

I don't want to imagine a native English speaker attempting to pronounce Polish names.

 

[Imperfacundus]

Ah yes, good ol' Wolfie Shrubbles.

 

[Dantius]

Where is Aurifex to rant when you need him?

When people who have been gone for a while come back to the forum, they must have tons of notifications from people tagging them like this.

 

[Terry S.]

I really hope Aurifex does return. I liked his commentary on the modern world.

Regarding "foreign" names, I have twice heard English language choirs singing for the intercession of "Saint Colmseal" [written as they mispronounced it]. A free Smartie to whoever figures out which Irish saint that was supposed to be.

 

[Dantius]

I really hope Aurifex does return.

Me too.

 

[Pollux]

That's the reason why many locations and famous people have exonyms.

 

[Iohannes Victor]

I'm new here, hi everybody

I'm a portuguese native speaker and hearing native english speakers pronounce words of other languages is painful. For example, the letter 'o' in english is a diphthong, whereas in almost every other, as portuguese spanish italian german polish, is just a simple phoneme. Quid pro quo, in my region we pronounce it identically as a native roman would pronounce, while an english native speaker, even the ones who learn other languages, would pronounce the 'quo' part as 'kwow'. The right pronounciation is 'kwo'.

So it's a bit complicated.