New English (?) name: Jhan

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Mar 22 08:49:11 UTC 2011


On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 10:28 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I had always assumed French origin and male Jean.

According to an anecdote in Sports Illustrated, you're hardly unique
in this. Somewhen, when the Winter Olympics were being held in France,
the top American woman skier was named "Jean Saubert," approx. [dZin
sOb at rt] without a second thought, probably, for most Americans. But it
was a problem for the French, as, according to SI, they wondered to
themselves, "Zhong So-BAIR? 'oo eez 'ee?"

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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