Monday, August 28, 2006

Pronouncing Foreign Places


A pet peeve I've always had, is when people get obsessed w/ pronouncing foreign places in the native accent, while everything else in their sentence stays American.

Example:
(pronounced their normal way) "Oh, yah, and in my Junior year of college I got to go to
( hispanicized with a clicked r) PAY ROO
(back to normal) for the year"

Not only is this kind of jarring, but silly, in my opinion. First of all, if you had said you had gone on a trip to England, would you have used a British accent when you said England? It also always feels to me like the people might be overeacting to American egocentricism. Like they're thinking, "Oh, it's so American to think it's actually pronounced that way. They should really know how it's really said."

Now, I realize, that's how the other countries say it, but there's nothing wrong with languages altering a place name to fit their language. For instance, would you correct a Spanish speaker for saying Estados Unidos?

All this being said, I do think the country Chile causes some problems. I maintain, that saying CHEE LAY sounds pretentious. But calling it chilly does sound a little dumb. I think the answer lies somewhere in splitting the difference, but am curious on where others stand on this highly controversial issue.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh lord, you bring up one of my biggest pet peeves - personified in the devil ALEX TREBEC. I hate listening to him roll RRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr for 10 seconds and correcting contestants. bastard. I want to swat him upside the head. Let it go - as if we don't have enough to worry about. International folks say "Oregun," all you want and I will continue to blunder schwarma, kitfo, and others.

5:05 pm  
Blogger Michael5000 said...

I'm with ya, Chuck. And "Chile" is a poser.

Exception: I think it is always a good bet to use the Frenchier pronuncaition of "Niger."

7:15 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This reminds me of Valerie Richardson (aka: the whitetest girl in the world) who spent a summer in MeHIco, MeHIco.

8:08 am  
Blogger chuckdaddy2000 said...

I forgot the actual worst one- when people say Hawaii in the native way. You know, when they kind of sound like birds- HA AH IE IE EEEEE

10:29 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

chuck,

What about people who abbreviate names of countries - like calling the Dominican Republic the "Dee-Are"? Doesn't that kind of piss you off when people do that, huh?

6:34 pm  
Blogger Michael5000 said...

It seemed like there was a day a few years ago when, without telling me, everybody decided to stop saying "Hawaii" and start saying "Hawa[long pause]Ee." Depending on who's saying it, you could go get yourself some coffee during the pause and still get back before they finish the word.

6:16 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree. I also hate it when you hear people speaking spanish or something and then all of a sudden an English word pops out. Dont they have their won words for everything?

Voy a ir abajo al almacén y a comprarme una COCA COLA y entonces a caminar de nuevo a mi casa y a conseguir puesto.

I also hate when the hispanic reporters do the whole story in very plain english and then close with

Rebecca Aggilarrrrrrrr Fox 4 news.

Where the F did that come from?

8:52 pm  
Blogger chuckdaddy2000 said...

James- Although the opposite is annoying as well. When someone is in a Mexico and they say everything in English and then end with Gracias.

10:34 pm  

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