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nightmare butchery of lastnames (was Re: Whiteness?)

From:Jonathan Chang <zhang2323@...>
Date:Tuesday, September 5, 2000, 19:29
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!" Things like that happened a lot on Ellis Island (on the East Coast) & similar things like that happened in the Bay Area (West Coast) on Treasure Isl and & Angel Island (Angel Island was where the Asians were "processed" - sometimes taking as long as 5 years!!!!). czHANg <= my iconic Romanized butchery, hehe << One thing foreigners, computers, & poets have in common is that they make unexpected linguistic associations. >> * Jasia Reichardt - creative cyberneticist *