The butchering of foreign words

Wibbs

Atari Jaguar, etc.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

What ? You normally make sense, Wibbs -

Ah well now you've lost it LB. Clear case of madness, right there...

There's no issue pronouncing a name the way the person themselves pronounce it......it's their name, so it's their choice.

And why do they pronounce it in such a way? Local speech patterns. The same patterns likely to cause a local commentator to say it that way. Indeed they're unlikely to hear any objections, even from locals with the same names as that's how they say it too. As for the same boyos getting other foreign names right, they seem to have serious problems getting their tongues around Italian/Spanish and eastern European names. They seem to sound right, but we just don't hear it cos they're foreign to us too. Ask any folks of the above listed persuasion LB and they'll likely have a different take.

dxhound2005

Barna77 wrote: »

The one that wrecks my head is how people say Benalmádena. Benal-mah-dee-nah :mad:

The accent on the A indicates to a native speaker that it is included in the the syllable to be stressed. In Spanish the rule is the second last syllable is stressed and accents are used to indicate where this is not to be the case. If Benal-mah-dee-nah trips more easily off the tongue of a non native speaker then I don't see any harm. If we all pronounced foreign place names like the locals then Irish people would come back from France saying I in was in Paree.

Apanachi

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The Germans are worse. I was watching Grainne Murphy swimming on German TV and the commentator kept caller her Grain.

The Germans really are terrible when it comes to buchering English words, not only do they butcher them, the misuse of English words is cringeworthy, I saw an ad once for bum-bags in a German store, the were selling them as "body bags" or one shop was selling "neck-holder" dresses"


Although, I do have to say, Irish names are tough for any non-irish person, it's not as though the Irish always pronounce German names correctly (even simple names like Michael (as in Ballack and Schumacher - the Irish tend to pronounce it as "Mike-el" but in their case it should be "Mich-eh-el") listening to Irish people trying to say the German name "Uwe" can be quite funny too

Omackeral

I was working in Dublin City Centre about a year ago and two American tourists approached me and the following took place...

Yanks: Excuse me Sir, can you please tell us the best route to take to get to Doonlay-Go-Harra?

Me: Sorry wha'?!

Yanks: Ummm, Doonlay-Go-Harra... *points to map*....

Me: Oh right, yeah you can take the N11 and follow til you see the sign!




They were looking for Dun Laoghaire. To be fair though, it must be tough for people from abroad to get to grips with some of these names.

Barna77

^^ That reminds me of two girls that asked me where was College Green. I had to ask them three times to repeat it as there was no way to understand what they were saying.

And this was outside Trinity College

Liam Byrne

Not annoying

Wibbs wrote: »

And why do they pronounce it in such a way? Local speech patterns. The same patterns likely to cause a local commentator to say it that way.

But my point is that that's how THEY pronounce it, so that's what the commentator should say.

It shouldn't matter whether I'm used to spelling "Brian" with an "i" or "Catherine" with a "K" - if someone's own choice of spelling differs from what I'm used to I should spell it correctly when referring to them.

Donnacha O'Callaghan has NEVER referred to himself as "Dunnerka Oh Callergan"

mikemac1

Atari Jaguar, etc.

Dun Laoghaire is a strange one alright

Irish placename but nobody pronounces it as it's spelt

later12

Atari Jaguar, etc.

DOON-LAY-OCK-HAIRY?

Right?

Do you guys have jello?
Do you know what duct tape is?
Is this country a demoooocrrrracy?

summerskin

Not annoying

Liam Byrne wrote: »

But my point is that that's how THEY pronounce it, so that's what the commentator should say.

It shouldn't matter whether I'm used to spelling "Brian" with an "i" or "Catherine" with a "K" - if someone's own choice of spelling differs from what I'm used to I should spell it correctly when referring to them.

Donnacha O'Callaghan has NEVER referred to himself as "Dunnerka Oh Callergan"

and Anthony Pilkington has never pronounced Anthony with a "th" sound, nor have the people of Sunderland pronounced it Sunder-LAND, rather than SUN-derluhnd, or the people of Birmingham called it either Birming-HAM or BER-minum instead of BIR-mingum, but that doesn't stop the irish newsreaders and commentators getting it wrong, does it? Works both ways.

As for Nathan Delfouneso, sorry irish newsreaders, but it's not pronounced Nayten DelFonzo. Make an effort at least...

mikemac1

Atari Jaguar, etc.

It's still Bombay to me
I remember the news coverage about the terrorist shootings.
Where the hell is Mumbai?


Myanmar is another one, I grew up knowing it Burma
I saw Myanmar on some post in boards, had to google that one as I didn't know where it was

dxhound2005

mikemac1 wrote: »

It's still Bombay to me
I remember the news coverage about the terrorist shootings.
Where the hell is Mumbai?


Myanmar is another one, I grew up knowing it Burma
I saw Myanmar on some post in boards, had to google that one as I didn't know where it was

Although we had the Peking/Bejing debate earlier placenames being changed is not really the same as butchering foreign words. Myanmar has not been accepted internationally. Mumbai/Bombay will co-exist for a while but if India insists on Mumbai it will become the norm. Just like Ceylon / Sri Lanka (1972) and Siam / Thailand (1949) changed and became accepted in the lifetime of many people still around.

pickarooney

summerskin wrote: »

and Anthony Pilkington has never pronounced Anthony with a "th" sound, nor have the people of Sunderland pronounced it Sunder-LAND, rather than SUN-derluhnd, or the people of Birmingham called it either Birming-HAM or BER-minum instead of BIR-mingum, but that doesn't stop the irish newsreaders and commentators getting it wrong, does it? Works both ways.

As for Nathan Delfouneso, sorry irish newsreaders, but it's not pronounced Nayten DelFonzo. Make an effort at least...

Want to bet?

Greentopia

Not annoying

Apanachi wrote: »

listening to Irish people trying to say the German name "Uwe" can be quite funny too

Ooh-vey. Have a German ex called Uwe.

summerskin

Not annoying

pickarooney wrote: »

Want to bet?

yep, pretty sure it's not Nayten.

Nothingbetter2d

Atari Jaguar, etc.

Morricone wrote: »

It really grinds my gears when I hear words from different languages being mispronounced and butchered by speakers of the English language. Its annoying to hear words being pronounced completely incorrectly especially after being corrected.

Bruschetta is one, it should be pronounced brus-ketta as the ch in Italian is pronounced as a k.

Fajitas is another with the hard J being pronounced when it should be soft. Tortilla with the double l pronounced as it is in English when as a Spanish word it should be pronounced Tort-iya.

Jalapeño is another one, I've heard it pronounced wrongly with a hard J and with the ñ mispronounced. It should be pronounced as if there is a y behind the n, i.e Jalapenyo.

I've seen Habanero written with an ñ for whatever unfathomable reason I don't know.

Have the good folk of After Hours got any more to add to the list?

Does it annoy you as much as it annoys me?

nah that doesnt bother half as much as the english speakers the butcher the english language.

Frere_Jaques

Not annoying

Ammonds. Ammond. Ammonds..

It's a fupping ALMOND you twonk!!

voz es

Terry Henry.

dxhound2005

Frere_Jaques wrote: »

Ammonds. Ammond. Ammonds..

It's a fupping ALMOND you twonk!!

Yes, but how do you pronounce it?

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=almond&submit=Submit

ShadowHearth

Chicken Fajitas - chicken vaginas


True story.

dxhound2005

voz es wrote: »

Terry Henry.

Never heard of him/her.

dxhound2005

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Chicken Fajitas - chicken vaginas


True story.

And very short.

Frere_Jaques

Not annoying

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Yes, but how do you pronounce it?

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=almond&submit=Submit

The fourth lad along:D