Anglicization

[Victor Steinbok]

  A few years ago--not quite in Wilson's childhood--a French-speaking
friend had an 18yo niece visiting from Paris (with another friend).
Somehow the conversation turned to actors and Richard Gere was
mentioned. The two French girls had a completely puzzled look, having
absolutely no idea who this person was. After going through several film
titles, one suddenly got the Eureka! and exclaimed, "Oh, [Rish'ahh
Zhehrh]!" (I am trying to get as close as possible without unicode and
IPA.) In fact, it was said almost like a single word, without any
audible word boundaries.

VS-)

On 10/8/2010 9:55 PM, Paul Frank wrote:
>   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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