'kimono' pronun & use

[Laurence Urdang]

Prominent among names in America are those that originated in Polish, German, Italian, etc. Some of the people bearing them have changed their spellings to conform to the way they are pronounced in America, others have kept their spellings and conformed their pronunciations to the way American speakers say them, still others have been successful in "forcing" American speakers to approximate their native pronunciations. I know people named Schwarz who pronounce their name SHWOARTS; I know people named Castagno who pronounce their name kuhSTAGno (and who say moDIGleeAHno for the artist); and we all have heard how Schiavo is almost universally pronounced SHYvo instead of skeeAHvo (or SKYAHvo). Zbigniew Brzinsky seems to have got by unscathed. In Europe (including England), my name is usually pronounced the way we do in the family, ERRdang; but in America, the initial pronunciation of choice is usually YOORdang. The common Polish name Kowalsky is usually pronounced koWAHLskee (as in
 "Stanley ---"), and if its "owner" wants to hear it in an approximation of its native pronunciation, all he need do is change the spelling to Kovalsky. Virtually any German or Slavic name with a W in medial or syllable-initial position has a V sound in the original, but we continually encounter WURner for VURner, etc. I know a woman named Veronica who spells it Weronica because she was brought up in Germany; that's fine for viva voce introductions, but must invariably result in a curious pronunciation should someone read it from written matter.
We all know all that---and a lot more besides---so I find it curious that a member would believe that the original, native pronunciation, especially the vowel sound, so volatile and, often, inimitable, of a word or name would be of any importance except to the "owner" of the name or to the pedant seeking, for example, to roll the R's in every Italian or Spanish word.
We have all seen what became of Latin pronunciation subjected to French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese influences and how, for instance, the surname of the great fado singer, Amalia Rodriguez, was pronounced with a final S or Z sound except by those who knew she was Portuguese and used the SH sound.
With the decline of family culture and the rise of semiliteracy in America, the traditional pronunciations have given way to spelling pronunciations. I don't care how people pronounce a given word, as long as I can understand what they mean. But I cannot deny that their pronunciation Van WICK (for Van "WIKE") Expressway in NYC, their saying JORuhLEMin for juhROLuhmin Street in Brooklyn, and scores of other ways of saying things marks them at once.
L. Urdang