Names With Zing

[James Harbeck]

Re: Attila: It's still a common name in Hungary, and in Hungarian
words are always stressed on the first syllable (length and stress
are separate in Hungarian). Those acquainted with Finnish are likely
to notice that once the accent is shifted it seems rather like a
Finnish name -- -ila is a Finnish suffix indicating place, and many
Finnish surnames end in -ila. Of course, Hungarian and Finnish are
related, if not very closely resemblant.

Which reminds me of a couple of old-style transliterations that have
led to modern mispronunciations: Genghis Khan and Khalil Gibran.
Modern transliterations would have them as Jinghiz Khan (or Cingiz
or...) and Khalil Jibran. But most people say the g's in the names as
velar stops.

James Harbeck.

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