O'Kun

[Mark A Mandel]

On Thu, 25 Jul 2002, Indigo Som wrote:

#>This reminds me. Some years ago a New Yorker named Okun (name derives
#>from Russian, where okun' designates the fish "perch") told me that
#>despite being Jewish, he was contacted as a college freshman by the
#>Catholic student group with an invitation to join. The letter was
#>sent in good faith under the mistaken assumption that his name is
#>Irish; it was addressed to him as O'Kun.
#
#My partner's last name is Ozawa, a reasonably common Japanese name. People
#sometimes try O'Zawa on her. Weird!

Ever since studying phonetics with John Ohala at Berkeley, I have
fantasized about a firm with three partners, one Japanese, one Irish,
and one Polish: Ohara, O'Hara, & Ohala.

-- Mark A. Mandel