[Lingtyp] IPA for linguists' names
Yuri Koryakov
ybkoryakov at gmail.com
Sun Sep 6 12:46:23 UTC 2026
Dear Ian,
Sure, so I decided to start with Lingtyp, as it has a smaller but more
advanced audience, and then send it to LinguistList.
And by the way I don't know about that initiative several years ago.
Where was it?
Yours,
Yuri
On 06.09.2026 10:09, JOO Ian via Lingtyp wrote:
> Dear Yuri,
>
> This is a good initiative (there was a similar one several years ago
> if I remember correctly?) but maybe it’s closer to a list of
> *linguistic typologists*’ names, as there are literally thousands of
> linguists in the world, which typologists are only a fraction of.
>
> From Paris,
> Ian
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 朱 易安
> JOO, IAN
> 准教授
> Associate Professor
> 小樽商科大学
> Otaru University of Commerce
> 🌐ianjoo.github.io <http://ianjoo.github.io/>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> *보낸 사람: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>이(가)
> 다음 사람 대신 보냄: Martin Haspelmath via Lingtyp
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *날짜: *일요일, 2026년 9월 6일 09:06
> *받는 사람: *lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *주제: *Re: [Lingtyp] IPA for linguists' names
>
> I always hoped that someone would take the initiative to do something
> like this, after Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm started requiring IPA for
> authors' names for "Linguistic Typology".
>
> There's a lot that could be said about pronunciation norms, or the
> potential primacy of written (or perhaps even signed?) versions of
> names – but it's a fact that we often pronounce names, and that we
> have expectations about pronunciations.
>
> I think that by making pronounciations public, we make our field more
> inclusive: People who haven't attended many conferences (and haven't
> heard names pronounced often) will have a way of quickly getting
> relevant information, and people whose names may present pronunciation
> difficulties will feel more included if their names are pronounced
> correctly (or pronounced at all, rather than avoided).
>
> Maybe someone would like to do something similar for language names? I
> feel that the invisibility of small languages is exacerbated if we
> don't know how to pronounce their names (I wrote about this quite a
> while ago: https://dlc.hypotheses.org/993).
>
> Martin
>
> On 06.09.26 07:25, Yuri Koryakov via Lingtyp wrote:
>
> Dear Jocelyn,
> thank you for your detailed letter. Below are the points.
>
> On 05.09.2026 23:25, Jocelyn Aznar via Lingtyp wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I think the initiative is interesting but, here are some
> comments and reservations:
>
> - Having a list like this without the agreement of the people
> concerned is not the nicest move, especially on Google doc.
> Yes, some of those information are public, but some of the
> people in the list could have some reservations/concerns about
> the purpose of the document or might not even adhere to its
> purpose.
>
> On the one hand, all information not added by people themselves is
> taken from public online sources; people add further information
> voluntarily. On the other hand, this table does not contain any
> sensitive personal information – no emails, place of residence,
> place of work, position, etc.
>
> - There isn't only one valid pronunciation of my name.
>
> The IPA column allows you to specify multiple pronunciation
> variants, both equivalent and language-specific.
>
>
> - I'm ok with people having difficulties pronouncing my name
> (at the end of the day, no one can master the pronunciation of
> the many phonologies we work with in our profession).
> - Pushing people to pronounce your name following your
> expectations can cause situations in which they feel really
> ill at ease because they cannot pronounce your name.
>
> Well, we don't force people to pronounce the names exactly this
> way, but we do give them a reference point. For example, when I
> just see the name Jocelyn, I don't even know what the first sound
> might be – [ʤ / ʒ / x / j] or something else.
>
> - I'm also ok with people adapting my name if it is too hard
> to pronounce, that's usually what happens in practice.
>
> - From a more technical angle,it would make more sense if the
> IPA transcription follows the same order of the first name +
> other name.
>
> Okay, maybe. But this way one can show the order in which a person
> prefers to pronounce their name. (By the way, the most common
> order in this column is: first name + other name.)
>
>
> Except the first point, all of my reservations are, I think,
> addressable with some more columns to the spreadsheet.
>
> That being written, I also understand that when you come from
> an oppressed background, like systematic oppression of your
> culture or identity by the State or the people around you,
> having your named acknowledged properly is an important topic.
> But the points I raised are not in contradiction with this
> issue in the end, just nuances.
>
> Best,
> aka Jocelyn, Joce, Jos, Jo, Jojo, George, Josiu, Joselinas,
>
> Yours,
> Yuri
>
>
> Le 05/09/2026 à 19:35, Hartmut Haberland via Lingtyp a écrit :
>
> This is a great initiative. Some of my publications have
> been translated into Japanese, and I have given lectures
> in Japan where my name was given on posters and websites
> in /katakana/, with a number of variations, in part based
> on spelling rather than pronunciation. I would go for
> ハートムート・ハーバーランド, since it is closest to the way I
> pronounce my name (Northern German, grown up in Hanover)
> and not least because ハーバーランドis also the name of a
> shopping mall in Kobe (Harborland, of course) 😊.
> (ハートムット・ハバーランドis OK, too, of course, and one
> could indeed discuss if ムットis not more adequate by
> focussing on the unstressed vowel indeed being short while
> its tenseness is better expressed by ムート; ハーバーランドis
> definitely the better solution.)
>
> *Hartmut Haberland*
>
> [haɐ̯tmu:t hɑ:bεɐ̯lant]
> Professor (mso) emeritus
>
> KORAL_GRAA_300KORAL_GRAA_300
> *Roskilde Universitet*
> Institut for Kommunikation og Humanistisk Videnskab
>
> Universitetsvej 1
> DK-4000 Roskilde
> Telefon: +45 46742841
>
> *Fra:*Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *På vegne af *Yuri Koryakov via Lingtyp
> *Sendt:* 5. september 2026 17:58
> *Til:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> *Emne:* [Lingtyp] IPA for linguists' names
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Many of us have encountered a situation where we need to
> pronounce the name of a linguist, but we don’t know how.
> Or we need to write down someone’s name in another script
> (Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, etc.), and this
> again requires correct pronunciation.
>
> As a result, you have to look for pronunciation
> instructions on personal webpages, listen to recordings on
> YouTube, ask friends, and so on, but it is much more
> convenient when such information is collected in one place.
>
> To do this, I created the editable list of names and their
> transcriptions here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/1zFKZp2e6dvfw_JQqX7904xY1GnqOwaopD2gnb3ytilA/edit?gid=0#gid=0
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/1zFKZp2e6dvfw_JQqX7904xY1GnqOwaopD2gnb3ytilA/edit?gid=0#gid=0>
>
> The *General Guide* “How to add your name to the list” is
> available in the Info tab (
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/1zFKZp2e6dvfw_JQqX7904xY1GnqOwaopD2gnb3ytilA/edit?
> gid=863783271#gid=863783271
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/1zFKZp2e6dvfw_JQqX7904xY1GnqOwaopD2gnb3ytilA/edit?
> gid=863783271#gid=863783271> ).
>
> Additional difficulties that this project allows to solve:
>
> a) distinguishing the surname from other names (necessary
> for the correct compilation of bibliographies and
> especially relevant for languages with a different order
> of components in the name or for names consisting of more
> than two words)
>
> b) indicating gender pronouns – he / she / they – useful
> in many languages when you need to, for example, refer to
> the author.
>
> If you are in doubt whether you should indicate yourself,
> you can use the following criterion as a working one: if
> you have published at least one article or had one
> presentation at a conference, you can safely provide your
> name. Also if people pronounce your name differently from
> how you’d like it to be pronounced, or if you’ve ever been
> asked how to pronounce your name, that’s a hint that you
> should provide that information.
>
> If you can’t/don’t want to add your data to the sheet
> yourself, you can send it to me by email . Also write if
> you have any questions/comments/ suggestions etc.
>
> Yours,
> Yuri Koryakov
>
> -- Martin Haspelmath Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
> Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6 D-04103 Leipzig
> https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20260906/9952d9c1/attachment.htm>
More information about the Lingtyp
mailing list