Re: Butchered Foreign Names

On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, John Cowan wrote:

> On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, andrew wrote:
>
> > Most Chomro would be gobsmacked by a name
> > like Betzwieser - spell it Betswieser or Betswaiser, or leave it alone?
>
> Betsfiser, probably, matching the original ['bEtsviz@R].
> Only the Saesoin, with their 56 incomprehensible spelling rules,
> would say ['bEtsvaIz@R].
<laugh>  Well, since said person's father is German, they pronounce it as
Germans would.  OC, having been in a lot of classes with him, let me just
say that his name gets butchered way more often than mine does, the most
common being "ie" being pronounced as "ei" (German-style), and German "w"
being changed to English "w", among other mutilations.

'Course, *I've* been called "Young," "Hyoon," "Yun" (to rhyme with "fun",
where it should actually almost rhyme with "moon," except the "oo" is
closer to "oo" in "good"--er, my dialect anyway!), etc.

My sister Yune (same pronuniciation) gets called "Yunee" (rhymes with
"funny"), "Yun," etc. and her middle name Kyung seems to be easily
butchered by most American teachers, though we're not sure why.  :-p

ObConLang, I can see my conlang's speakers trying very hard to get a name
right if it's a foreigner they respect, and not caring about butchery--or
even making bad puns, where possible--if it's a foreigner they don't.
But I suspect that isn't particularly unusual or interesting.  <rueful look>

YHL