etcetera

pronunciation, etc.

In one of my earlier posts I had written about identifying the country of origin from the surname. Another thing that interests me is their pronunciation, especially because of the foreign authors of our reference books.So here's a quick guide for pronunciation of these surnames, based on what I have learnt over the years from football commentary, some very informative friends (ya, of course Amey and Ameya Kelkar). There may be errrors, 'cos I have not formally learnt this. So I welcome any suggestions. The corresponding pronunciations in English or Hindi are given in bracket.

1. German:This I learnt from my sister and Omkar. In German, pronunciations remain fixed for letters or group of letters, unlike English. Here is some list. a :a in 'yaar'
   i: 'i' in 'sit'
   au: ou in house
   ei: 'ai' in fire. That's why its 'kaiser' and not 'kiser' (our OFC book) v: 'f' in fan. (even in Dutch) so It should be pronounced 'folkswagen' not 'volkswagen'
   eu: 'oy' in 'boy'. So it's 'Oyler's thm' not 'Uler's thm'
   j: 'y' in year
   z: 'ts'
   s: z in zebra
   sch: 'sh' in 'shoe'
   ch: kh in 'kho-kno'(this sound is not present in English) or sh if followed by 'i' or 'e'
   tsch: ch in chair
   umlaut(two dots on vowels, like ë, ä ) is many times represented in English texts by 'e' following the corresponding vowels (e.g. Roentgen). Put bit of 'y' in pronuncing these vowels.
   If there is 'e' at the end make complete pronunciation like sanskrit.
2. French: Thanks Shreyasee for this information. French pronunciations are completely different from what is written. And many of the pronunciations are nasal and silent.
   
   ais, ait, aint,è : all are pronounced 'a' in 'cat'
   in: nasal 'a' in cat
   é: e in met
   on/en: nasal 'o'. 'On' in English without 'n'
   ss: s in see
   s: soft j
   ll: 'y' in year. So Verseilles is pronunced 'Versay' and not 'Verselis'
3. Spanish:
   
   Spanish football has helped me a lot, with some inputs from my Spanish penpal.
   
   j: 'h' in 'house. Hence 'jose' is pronunced 'hosei' ( but portugese Jose is pronounced as Jose)
   v: b in bat. e.g.Xavi Alonso ll: 'y' c: This is very interesting. Because of lisp, people in Nothern Spain pronounce 'c' as 'th'.
   Hence, they call 'garthia' instead of 'garcia'. So be specific when pronouncing the cities in
   nothern Spain like 'Valenthia'( Valencia)

If there is 'ˇ' on top of any character then it is Czech name and symbol represents 'h'. If you look carefully you will find it on 's' on 'skoda'. So 'Škoda' should be pronounced as 'shkoda' and not 'skoda'.

These are few(?) points which I could remember. I would try to add few things in future. Or even any of the readers are welcome. And there is always Wiki to help us. Aren't there are so many interesting things in the way we pronounce? I really find it fascinating.

posted by ninad @ 1:30 pm