Pronunciation of "Ngaio"

[David A. Daniel]

There is a(n) (in)famous poker player named Scotty Nguyen. He pronounces his
name Scotty Win - could be more marketing than etymocultural. (Hmmm. Appears
I may have just coined etymocultural. Remember: you saw it here first.)
DAD


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jim Parish
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 6:56 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of "Ngaio"



James Harbeck wrote, of "Nguyen":
> Lucky you! Here in multicultural Toronto, I've heard the same name
> said [juN] and [nudZEn] and [nugEn]. [NaI at n] isn't quite a match to
> the Vietnamese, either, but it's much closer (ISTR it's more like
> [Nujn] - according to what I was told by one person bearing the name).
> Nonetheless, I agree that the trend is towards being able (or should I
> say willing) to pronounce the velar nasal word initially.

I remember, back in the '60s, hearing the name pronounced [nwIn].
Haven't heard it (in any pronunciation) much since the end of the
Vietnam War, but then this area hasn't attracted too many Indo-Chinese
immigrants.

Jim Parish

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