Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc.

> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Mark J. Reed
> Will respond in detail later when I can see the quoted text and make
> sure things are in the right context.  But just to be clear: I've read
> "The Ugly American", and I'm painfully familiar with the bigotry
> (manifested as arrogance, indifference, jingoism, xenophobia...) that
> is all too common among my countrymen (and fellow Anglophones
> elsewhence, to a lesser degree). I am not defending that. But the
> pronunciation of foreign names in an Anglophonic context is a separate
> matter.  Heck, if I insert meticulously-pronounced Spanish food item
> names into my otherwise pure-gringo fast food order, the
> coincidentally-Hispanic person behind the counter is more likely to
> think I'm being patronizing than respectful.
Yeah, but I still hear people say things like ['keIs@di@] (diphthongized [eI], wrong
stress) when they are perfectly capable of using the closer, but still
anglicized [kes@'di@] for [kesaDija].

The media don't help much either by using [Z] instead of [d_Z] in names like Beijing or Fallujah"

I'm not saying we should try pronounce the names like natives, but use the closest
approximation we have available within the limits of our own phonology. The
only real problem arise when you have places with multilingal populations, so
which name would you use for Switzerland?