taking poll on pronunciation

[Kim Braithwaite]

These occasional exchanges about how non-Russians speaking non-Russian ought 
to pronounce this or that Russian proper name are revealing and often 
amusing. Some Russianists seem to be sticklers for saying it the way 
Russians say it.

I agree that the natural impulse of English speakers speaking English (me, 
for example) is to say BoroDIno, and frankly it does not offend me. I do 
doubt that it's by analogy with e.g. Tarantino, or for that matter Arizona. 
Phonologists can probably explain it.

What about Czechs, Poles, and Hungarians (for example)? According to 
textbook descriptions, Czech and Hungarian have a rigid stress pattern on 
the first syllable - hence, presumably, BOrodino. And Polish has a rigid 
stress pattern on the penultimate - hence, presumably, BoroDIno. But maybe 
their intellectuals and diplomats, or radio and TV announcers, break their 
native stress rules in deference to the way Russians say it. I'd really like 
to find out, in case someone on SEELANGS knows.

Of course there's those tricky akanie vowel gradations too, which those 
languages do not share - nor, for that matter, does Ukrainian. On the other 
hand, Belorussian/Belarusan not only pronounces it BaradziNO but actually 
spells it Барадзiно (I hope my Unicode Cyrillic comes through). That -dz- 
affrication is an additional curious feature of Belarusan.

Suppose we do teach Americans to stress the final syllable: -NO. After that, 
the vowel gradations? Uh-uh. Achieve BorodiNO and quit while we're ahead.

As for using rhyme to teach BorodiNO, I can think of a couple of fanciful 
poem plots, which I'll be happy to share offline with any poets out there.

"Good is better than Evil, because it's Nicer" - Mammy Yokum (Al Capp)
Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator
Russian and Georgian
= = = = =

--------------------------------------------------
From: "J.W." <jw at KANADACHA.CA>
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 7:56 AM
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] taking poll on pronunciation

> Ottawa (Canada), Monday 17/5/10 10h45 EDT
>
> For Russian place names that do not already have a fossilised (universally
> accepted) pronunciation in English, why not take the opportunity of
> promoting the correct one -- particularly in terms of translating poetry,
> where the rhyming context will reinforce the proper pronunciation.  In the
> case of Borodino, one could simply put in a footnote: 'Stress on last
> syllable'.
>
> This is the approach I took in translating a poem for Book 1 of Vladimir
> Megré's Ringing Cedars Series (2nd ed., p. 215), where I had "Anastasia"
> rhyming  with "idea".
>
> John Woodsworth
>
> Member, Literary Translators' Association of Canada
>
>  http://attlc-ltac.org/bak/Woodsworth2.htm
>
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