Re: Butchered Foreign Names

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>A foreign name could be transliterated directly-- "m i l l s"-- with a
>guide
>to pronunciation, but would probably be read by most as _milis_; others
>might appear as _kawan_ or _kowan_ depending on pronunciation; Chang would
>be written "c a ñ", spoken  _chang_; Brown > "p r a w u n" spoken _praun_,
>the /p/ is unaspirated and semi-voiced; Smith written/pronounced "simít"or
>"simís".  First names would be transcribed as heard, not spelled, so
>"racar", "can" "andru" "remondo" "canatan" ; "yun ha" (/h/ is velar
>fric.),
>but since it is a unit, the tendency would be to say "yuka".  Betzwieser--
>oh my.  Pesewisar?  hmm, sounds like a compound and might mean something
>bad.
Going a bit deeper into this: The Saalangal would if using the Latin
alphabet use the original spelling. Like I said, pronunciation would be as
best they can approximate things:

Mills - Mils
Cowan - Kowan, Kawan
Brown - Brawn (/braun/)
Smith - Smit, Smis
Yun ha - Yun Ha :)
Betzweiser - Betswayser, Beswayser
Chang - Cang (c - /tS/)

A few first names:

Barry - Bari
John - Can /tSan/
Johnathan - Canatan /tSanatan/
Joo Lee - Ju Li
Charles - Cals /tSals/
Andrew - Andru, Anru
>
>As to the Gwr people, they would have to reduce polysyllables to a series
>of
>monosyllables, substitute /l/ for /r/, all final nasals > N.  Chang and
>Yun
>ha li would be fine; Garcia might be "ga si: (y)a", Brown "b@ laung",
>though
>"br aung" would be possible too; ka wan or ko wan.
On further thought, my name would probably be spoken by the Saalangal as
"garsiya"



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