Don't touch my phonemes (PS)

[Jim White]

Goethe Street in St. Louis is locally pronounced 'GOthE' rhyming with
'both he'.  The author is usually 'GURt@', with the 'r' very slight.

Larry Trask wrote:

> Another example is the name 'Goethe', which is a little harder to
> anglicize.  In my experience, most academics use a German-style
> pronunciation.  However, John Wells recommends for Brits what I will
> write as 'GUR-t@', except, of course, that the <r> there is not
> pronounced.  Amazingly, he gives 'GAY-t@' -- something like 'gator' --
> as the preferred US pronunciation, even though I don't think I ever
> heard this in my 25 years in the States.  Can any Yanks confirm this?
> My US dictionary gives *only* the German-style pronunciation, which
> is what I usually heard in the States, except that my high-school
> English teacher called him 'GUR-thee', a pronunciation I have never
> heard from anyone else.

--
Jim White