Re: Spousal names (Was: Re: "Mister" (was: Re: New Lang: Igassik))

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Kristian Jensen wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 25 Oct 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> >
> >> Alternatively, why don't you "adopt" a German first name, then? ;-)
> >
> ><sniff>  I would if he'd adopt a Korean name.  Make it easier on my poor
> >Korean relatives who can't at all pronounce "Betzwieser," as opposed to
> >his relatives, who have no problem with "Yoon" or "Lee."  I see no reason to
>
> Doesn't he accept the Koreanized version of "Betzwieser"? My
> father's name is Hartvig Jensen [ha:dvi:? jEns@n], which always
> gets rendered as Heartbig Jensen [hartbig dZEnsEn] by my Filipino
> relatives. My father has no problem with that. Similarly, my
> Danish name ought to be pronounced as [kREsdj&n], but I don't
> mind if it gets rendered another way.
Oh, considering the number of classes I've been in with him where the
prof, TA and/or other students mutilate Betzwieser in some pretty
improbable ways, I don't think he cares.  ;-)  It's not *completely*
horrible in Korean, but Korean doesn't have voiced sounds except maybe as
allophones, /v/ and final /r/ (or trill or tap or whatever approximation)
never occurs, and consonant clusters are very limited, so at best it
comes out something like Paesupiseoru /pesupis help? ru/.  I have the
sneaking suspicion that my folks and other relatives refer to him as
"Yoon's boyfriend" or possibly "that German guy" (German rendering in
Korean as something like /toitSi/ or /toic<h>i/ (er--I can't remember how
aspiration is shown in Kirschenbaum).

OC, my relatives refer to me as something like "that tomboy who will
never get herself a husband" sometimes, so he's better off.  =^)

YHL