a possibly minority position

[Olga Meerson]

I agree! The most interesting pronunciating butchering of Russian names by Americans occurred with Khrushchev. I wish this were 'our' last problem with 'them' -- and vice versa, of course!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michele A. Berdy" <maberdy at GMAIL.COM>
Date: Thursday, March 6, 2008 1:40 pm
Subject: [SEELANGS] a possibly minority position

> I have no idea what phonetic rendering of Medvedev will be easiest 
> for English-speakers to pronounce. It's definitely a difficult name 
> for non-Russian speakers. But I think that if people get the stress 
> right and most of the sounds -- that will be just fine. Because (in 
> a small voice) I don't think it's such a big deal. For 8 years 
> Russians have called the US president Mr Boosh. They call the first 
> US president something like Dzhyorch Vashinkton. (And don't forget 
> that famous writer Gerbert Ooels.) That's not disrespect or 
> butchering the names -- it's just the best they can do with their 
> transliteration and phonetic systems. Somehow we have all survived 
> without a serious international incident.   
> 
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