Re: nightmare butchery of lastnames (was Re: Whiteness?)

On Tue, 5 Sep 2000, Jonathan Chang wrote:

> In a message dated 2000:09:05 6:24:30 AM, yl112@CORNELL.EDU writes:
>
> >ObConLang: Do y'all deal with butchered foreigners' names in your
> >conlangs?  :-)  By some strange coincidence, my name is entirely
> >pronounceable in Chevraqis.  My boyfriend's name is a nightmare (but
> >then, his last name is Betzwieser, which is a nightmare in Korean, too).
>
> LOL, to my English _Betzwieser_ looks if it would be easier to pronounce like
> "Budwizer." See, butchery... It happened a lot to immigrants coming through
> Ellis Island to America... In slow tourist-like talk, an Anglo-American clerk
> would ask, "What's your father's sirname -er- last name?"
> Our hypothetically immigrant proudly answers, "Me fathah name waz
> Castigliano." {_Castigliano_ means Castilian}
>     Anglo-clerkie has lightbulb go off (albeit a dim one due to
> under-education & overwork) & says, "Ah, you are a Castleman!"
<wry g>  I hear that's what happened to McLeod -> McCloud, but I don't
remember where I read that.

>     czHANg  <= my iconic Romanized butchery, hehe
<laugh>  Well, my "Lee" is an "i".  And my mom's name is Cheon Ok Seon,
which is technically the standard transliteration, but most people would
probably have a better chance of pronouncing it right if she'd gotten it
registered or whatever as Chun Ok Sun.  (The "soft" s, whose IPA symbol
I'm completely uncertain of, just doesn't appear in English.)

YHL