Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In conversation, do you think it's more proper to pronounce foreign places as the locals would pronounce it? Or as they're commonly announced in your own country? Is it pretentious to pronounce it the native way?
For example, do you say Paris or paw-ree? Chile or chee-lay? Barcelona or barthelona?
I nearly always use the pronunciation that is used in my own language, to do otherwise seems a bit pretentious in my opinion. The only exceptions I can think of are Namur ("Namen" in Dutch) where I used to live, because I'm so used to saying it in French that it sounds strange to me in Dutch, and Lille ("Rijsel" in Dutch) because the name Rijsel just doesn't fit the city at all, it sounds more like a provincial Dutch town. Most Dutch people prefer to use the name Lille, whereas in Flanders it's more common to use Rijsel.
I get annoyed when I hear American news broadcasters pronouncing Spanish names with Spanish phonetics, and it makes me think that they are just trying to show off. When I speak Spanish and want to mention an American place, I try to say it in Spanish-sounding phonetics (Tay-hass), as a courtesy to my listener.
I had a problem with Don Rumsfeld trying to convince the news media that Qatar is Gutter, and even worse, the news media obeying his command. I bet Rumsfeld doesn't say May-hee-ko, or accent Romania on the first and third syllables.
I use to think people who said Eye-rack sounded ignorant, but what the hell. If Iceland starts with an Eye, why not Iraq and Iran? Icelandic people spell it Island and say Ees-lant. Who makes the rule about what other countries are called in English?
I get annoyed when I hear American news broadcasters pronouncing Spanish names with Spanish phonetics, and it makes me think that they are just trying to show off. When I speak Spanish and want to mention an American place, I try to say it in Spanish-sounding phonetics (Tay-hass), as a courtesy to my listener.
I had a problem with Don Rumsfeld trying to convince the news media that Qatar is Gutter, and even worse, the news media obeying his command. I bet Rumsfeld doesn't say May-hee-ko, or accent Romania on the first and third syllables.
I use to think people who said Eye-rack sounded ignorant, but what the hell. If Iceland starts with an Eye, why not Iraq and Iran? Icelandic people spell it Island and say Ees-lant. Who makes the rule about what other countries are called in English?
The hyper-foreignists all fall into a trap of their own making soon enough, whether ostentatiously pronouncing the 'w' in 'Volkswagen' as a v, but forgetting that the 'v' should be pronounced as an 'f', or announcing that they will be attending 'a series of fora on the future of orang utans', forgetting that the animals addressed by said 'fora' are un fact 'orang utan-orang utan' when pluralised according to the Malay.
The lesson being that while speakers of English are generally to be applauded for achieving, as an organism, roughly the 'correct' pronounciation of 'jalapeño' and 'hors d'œuvre', those who attempt to precede the curve are generally dicks.
However, it is possible to pronounce Iraq 'Iraq' instead of 'eye rack' without being one who attempts to precede the curve.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
Reputation: 11862
Unless speaking in French, of course, it sounds more natural to use the English pronunciation. btw I thought it was more like pa ree, than paw ree lol. Many place names are spelt, said or even completely different to what we know them in English. Prague is Praha, Moscow is Moskva, and Bangkok is Krung Thep...Japan is Nippon, and Germany is of course Deutschland.
In conversation, do you think it's more proper to pronounce foreign places as the locals would pronounce it? Or as they're commonly announced in your own country? Is it pretentious to pronounce it the native way?
For example, do you say Paris or paw-ree? Chile or chee-lay? Barcelona or barthelona?
I agree with the sentiments that posters above have written: I pronounce it in my English dialect. It depends on your audience, but mostly I feel it is affected and breaks the rhythm of the English sentence to pronounce a word in its native pronunciation.
I would pronounce the words you mentioned as /pae ris/ /chi li/ /bar se lo na/.
Many cities in Europe have exonyms: Rome, Vienna, Lisbon, Warsaw, to name a few. Other cities in Asia must have at least a romanisation, since they have sounds which are impossible in English or other european language. Even other places in Europe such as Vila Nova de Famalicão, in Portugal, has a completely weird native pronounce for english speakers. And I cannot imagine an english speaker saying "Barthelona", for example.
I hate it when the news media in the Obama age now pronounces place names like he does (when Bush was president, the news media pronounced the names like he did) I hate it when Obama tries to sound PC and call it Pah-kee-stahn instead of pack-i-staan. Now people say ee-rahk instead of eye-rack, ee-rahn instead of eye-ran, etc. With the Spanish names, I give more leeway to Americans for saying it correctly, since we are the most exposed to Spanish of the non-Caribbean English speaking countries.
As for Barthelona, do even the Brits say it as Barthelona, or do they say it as Barcelona? (in Spanish, the th sound is called ceseo, while the s sound is seseo, btw)
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed
I hate it when the news media in the Obama age now pronounces place names like he does (when Bush was president, the news media pronounced the names like he did) I hate it when Obama tries to sound PC and call it Pah-kee-stahn instead of pack-i-staan. Now people say ee-rahk instead of eye-rack, ee-rahn instead of eye-ran, etc. With the Spanish names, I give more leeway to Americans for saying it correctly, since we are the most exposed to Spanish of the non-Caribbean English speaking countries.
As for Barthelona, do even the Brits say it as Barthelona, or do they say it as Barcelona? (in Spanish, the th sound is called ceseo, while the s sound is seseo, btw)
What about Americans calling Muslims, 'muzz-lims'? They're the only ones to do so.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
