Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc.

Lars Finsen wrote:
>
>That's a good point, and I think the substantial differences between  the
>phonetics of English and those of most other languages add to it  as well.
The phonetics of other languages I think present plenty of problems when
their speakers go to learn English--our /T, D, @, r\ / and the contrast
between /i I, e E, u U/ are major stumbling blocks.


To a foreigner it does convey the impression of an
>attitude  like the Winston Churchill "Foreign names were made for
>Englishmen,  not Englishmen for foreign names" thing, and I wouldn't be
>surprised  if there's some of that stuff still lingering on as well, on a
>more  or less conscious level.
Probably true; anglophones have a reputation for being poor learners of
foreign languages. Yet I've heard some British politicians speak excellent
French (and others who totally butcher it); one of our presidential
candidates (I forget which) gave a very fluent speech in Spanish, but then
there's Mr. Bush, who sounds like he's talkin to the field hands........

At least, what's wrong
>with trying to  imitate a reasonably correct pronunciation of Milano and
>Torino for  example? That shouldn't be so difficult. Tradition is the only
>reason  not to.
Nativized forms of many well-known place names exist and are of long
standing. What do Norwegians call Moscow?  Not [moskva] I'll wager.
>
>I think I could tell you, too, without offending, that between  ourselves,
>we foreigners sometimes have our own laughs at the ways in  which you
>English-speakers pronounce our names.
It works the other way round too. I had trouble convincing a hotel in Brazil
that I had a reservation; the problem resolved when I wrote down my name,
and the clerk brightened: Ah, senhor ['miuS]! Someone had written "Mills" as
it would be pronounced in Braz. Portuguese..........

After several generations, most foreign names have become Americanized (and
the same will probably happen with Hispanic names). German "Mueller"s are
now [mUl@r\, mjul@r\] or even [mIl@r\]; most of the Dutch names in my area
are still written a la Dutch, but -huis is usually [hajs] or even "house",
and the little village of Graafschap (sp?) is often called "Grass Cup". So
go figure :-))))))

Reply