Anglicization

[Paul Frank]

 Poster: Â  Â  Â  Salikoko Mufwene <s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU>

> Â On 10/8/2010 10:44 AM, Paul Frank wrote:
>> This (in my opinion silly) habit of pronouncing foreign names the
>> foreign or pseudo-foreign way when speaking English only works with
>> languages with which English speakers are familiar or vaguely
>> familiar.

> SSM: I am shocked by the parenthetical. How else can one pronounce=20
> foreign names, by anglicizing them?
>
> Sali.

I would prefer anglicization, but I don't get to tell people how to
speak. I prefer Cologne to Köln and Milan to Milano when speaking
English. (I hear Milano all the time from native English speakers in
these parts.) The Chinese sinicize (or sinify, if you prefer) foreign
names, which is reasonable. Angelina Jolie is Anjilina Zhuli (I'm not
bothering to insert tone marks because this server doesn't do unicode;
安吉丽娜·朱莉 ). Another phenomenon, and that's the one I find silly, is the
tendency of many English speakers nowadays to pronounce foreign words
or names in an affectedly foreign way in mid-sentence. The French
pronounce English names the French way, which is reasonable.  Richard
Gere is pronounced as if it were a French name. I wish you could hear
my wife, who's a French speaker, say Richard Gere. It sounds natural
in French.

Harrumphingly,
Paul

P.S. I'm neither a linguist nor a phonetician, and I have a furrin
accent to boot, so who am I to talk.

Paul Frank
Translator
German, French, Italian > English
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 77 4096132
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch

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