PRONUNCIATION OF FOREIGN NAMES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 758, 29 January 1954, Page 5

PRONUNCIATION OF FOREIGN NAMES

Sir,-I have been a teacher, and am still a student, of languages (including English), and I wish I could share Mr. C.. Francis Thompson’s faith that English "always attempts an approximation to the native pronunciation" of foreign names. Surely Mr. Thompson has heard English-speaking people say "Wipers" for Ypres, or "Bonus Air-Is" for Buenos Aires, or "Pappeat" for the four syllables of Pape-ete; he may not have heard Aucklanders call Motuihe "Motor Hee," or Te Kauwhata "Teeker Wotter," but he may well have friends in "Papper-Newy."’ Would he really call any of these an approximation to the native values? The matter is not without complications, and variant pronunciations are often tolerated; thus for Los Angeles (recently discussed in these columns) Webster admits, as alternatives to the Spanish form, either the "hard" g of get or the "soft" g of gern (but insists on the clear e-sound of these words). On the one hand, very many wellknown place names have standard anglicised forms: it would now be sheer affectation to say, for instance, "Pahree’ for Paris, or to substitute "Firenze" for Florence, "Muenchen" for Munich, or "Kwangtung" for Canton. On the other hand, the more general trend is now to accept native spellings: since World War I, Serbia has _ replaced Servia, and more recently we have Helsinki and Ankara instead of Helsingfors and Angora. Educated people, will no doubt "approximate to the native pronunciation" of such forms, but the less-educated and less-travelled majority will inevitably pronounce them as if they were English; it would now be pedantic to object to "Reemz" for Reims, or "Burr-linn" for Berlin (the natives say "Berr-leen’’). But the mispronunciation of personal Names is more serious. English has a‘remarkable number of names with recognised variant pronunciations, and it is agreed that in common courtesy the owner of a name should decide how it is to be. pronounced. t we not to extend the same rtesy to foreign

names? Would Mr. Smith consent to be "Smeet" in France (where he is a- foreigner)? or would Jones accept "Honace" from a Spaniard?: The purist must, of course, be reasonable in_ his demands: I felt a throb of sympathy for the recent announcer who baulked at Szulc (Polish spelling for Schultz), and (honest man!) omitted the name rather than distort it;.and I suppose I must forgive even my good friend Owen Jensen for calling Bartok "Bah-tock," instead of something like "Borr-toke" (the second syllable rhyming with coke). Only a minority of New Zealanders, I suppose, have a working knowledge of Polish or Magyar. But many can speak French or German, Italian or Spanish; and rules for the pronunciation of these important languages are easily accessible. It is as unnecessary as it is unpleasant to hear, for instance, Victoria de los Angeles -announced as "Dee Loss Ann Jurleez"; a Brazilian Lobos is not a "Low Boss," nor is Berlioz "Burlyuss"; Goethe was recently announced as "Gurtee,’’ and in the next sentence as "Gurtay" (both are, in fact, wrong, and both cannot, in any case, be right); when a German Georg is called "Jay-awj," not one single sound is even an attempt at an approximation to the native pronunciation. The matter, Sir, is of some import-ance-not tc the highbrow in his Ivory Tower, but to the multitude of ordinary listeners, who seldom or never hear these foreign names except from the radio. Surely the NZBS stations have works of reference; and surely their announcers are briefed before they come

on the air.

P. S.

ARDERN

(Auckland).