For example, an English person called Bob might introduce themselves as “Bob”, whereas an American person called Bob might introduce themselves as “Bahb”. (Sorry, don’t know the phonetic alphabet but hopefully you get my gist)
Should you pronounce those two people’s names the same, with your own natural accent, or should you copy how the person says their own name?
Edit: I specifically picked a generic English name with different pronunciation across different accents. I know my wording wasn’t great, sorry! Hopefully the edit is a bit clearer.
Context and other languages
When pronouncing a name from a different language, I firmly believe you should copy the pronunciation of the owner of that name, and not Anglicise the name unless asked to. I say this as a speaker of a language that English people regularly mispronounce and even insist to me that they know the correct pronunciation of my language.
As a classroom teacher for students who are >80% immigrants from non-anglophone countries, I can actually speak with some authority on the subject. I have many students who have traditional names in other languages, as well as students whose parents 100% just made up something they thought sounded nice. I am one of the few teachers who emphasises correctly pronouncing students’ names. If they put stress on the second syllable, I put stress on the second syllable. If they have a non-english phoneme, you bet I’m learning how to do the clicks in Xhosa, or the “ng” in Vietnamese or Maori. I work very hard to make sure I’m pronouncing their names exactly how they do.
I have had three students in the last month alone remark on how I am the only teacher they’ve ever had who pronounced their name “right”. I have a student named Djibril who had extremely poor relationships with most of the teachers in the building, but who always does my work, and he straight up told me last year that it was because I am the only person in the entire school who actually pronounces his name correctly. Everyone else just calls him “juh-BRILL”, when he says it should be pronounced closer to “JEE-breel” (with a lilted r).
Making sure you pronounce someone’s name how they pronounce their name can be extremely important to social relationships, and having an anglicised name attached to them against their will is often mentioned among memoirs of immigrants as one of the first and most alienating things to happen to them when they enter an anglophone country. It’s not about expecting others to cater to your weird name. It’s about people having a basic modicum of respect for the humanity of non-dominant cultures. In america, at least, this respect has never been a thing. From Ellis island literally changing people’s names because they thought they would be hard for “real” Americans to pronounce, to interning anyone with a japanese name regardless of how long their family was in the US, to the new fascist roundups of anyone with a name that sounds plausibly nonwhite.
So, even with different “accents”, I’d say that pronouncing it exactly how they say it can be important. If someone in Germany went to the trouble of pronouncing the ‘w’ in my name with an american “w”, I’d appreciate it, at the least, but it would probably also make me remember them fondly every time someone else pronounced it incorrectly accented.
My neighbor introduced himself and his wife to me, and he says “Maritza,” very flat, and I say, oh maRITza" with a little flourish and tongue roll and he’s like “no, Maritza.”
They’re both Mexican and her name is pronounced the full way with their extended families, so I think the point was, don’t accent up the word I just told you. And I haven’t since.
So we’re clear, you should match their accent is the lesson here… Had he introduced her as maRITza and you responded “oh Maritza”, he’d have the same reaction.
Don’t correct someone’s accent, that’s what he reacted to.
Accent is not pronunciation, I try to get as close as possible as the originally intended pronunciation the person cast of their name, not mimic the stereotypical changes in the common sounds the person makes on the transcribed text of their name… I believe there is a difference
This. Forget about accent. Try to pronounce their name as close as you can to how they said it themselves. That’s what matters.
This question reminds me of a dog I ended up with. He knew his name, but only in the same accent as his previous owner. So I’d be at the dog park in New England calling for my dog in the most exaggerated southern accent I could muster.
That’s really funny to me. What was his name and what was he like?
His name’s “Elvis” and he answered to “Aye-ellll-vis”. Now he doesn’t answer to anything because he’s gone deaf, but he’s still a great pup. He’s a senior terrier mix, about 10 pounds. He’s a bit of a velcro dog and I am the One True Human, so it sucks for him that I work outside the home. He’s stuck with Work From Home Partner, who just doesn’t fill the same void in Elvis’s heart. So, Elvis sleeps all day and then watches the front very attentively when he decides I should come home.
He still has bursts of energy. Last weekend he met a chihuahua his age. Elvis was like “omg, you’re slightly smaller than me and seem even more chill. Let me dance around and thwack you in the face so you’ll play with me”. The other pup was game and it was adorable to watch two seniors playing.
He goes on long hikes with me. He gets tired after about a block and will turn around and try and get me to go back to the car. I generally just carry him at this point. He’s lucky he’s tiny. He’ll lean forward to ask to be set down, then he’ll either sniff something or amble so very slowly along the path. He is the worst hiker.
He sounds like a pretty awesome dude. Thanks for sharing. Also sounds like he has you pretty well trained, he gets to ride and sniff.
We don’t have a small dog right now, our elderly Chihuahua reached the end a couple years ago and my wife is still raw.
I’m one of these types of people, if I am around an accent enough, I pick it up very quickly, I cannot help it.
I’d likely pronounce a name the same as the person speaks it to me. Really depends on the accent/language and my correlating familiarity with it though.
You might have a fair point but who the fuck in the US pronounces it “Bahb”.
Lmao I don’t know why I find it funny.
Just said “hi bahb” to my grandfather bob and he told me he was going to disinherit me. But I digress I don’t know the phonetic symbols either.
Not if you’re from Bahstahn.
The ahh sound is pretty common in New England accents I’m pretty certain. Goin to the ha-bah this sum-ah (harbor this summer).
Many of us don’t pronounce Rs completely, and vowel sound have a slight adjustment. Bob, and Bahb, is such a small change, but saying Bob in Maine or Boston, I totally hear it, Bahb. Yeah, I totally understand what OP means.
I mean I’ll.try but I am not confident in myself here
I will attempt to say a person’s name how they say it. If they say “call me [simple anglicized name]” then I will do that.
Most people seem to appreciate the effort. I’m sure my American vocals butcher some pronouciations, but I don’t make a big deal out of it and my work gives me a lot of chances to practice. I will always make a good faith attempt at last names.
I live in Texas and will pronounce food names of Mexican origin with a Mexican accent. Burrito, taco, chalupa.
That’s where I land. I had one friend named Juanita who praised me for being the only one who pronounced her name correctly! Then I have another polish friend who ISNT named Chris. He’s very vocal “just call me Chris”
I’m interested in names because I personally am “Michael” not “Mike”
It seems like a simple thing but it isn’t. A name is only “the sound I make to get your attention “ if you shout @mike” I won’t hear you. It’s a very common name. I’m Michael not Mike.
Sure thing Mike /s
That’s the thing! It’s not annoying or insult to call me Mike.
If you shout “Mike” I’m not going to look because I’m not Mike. It’s not a personal preference. You might as well shout “Abraham” it’s not my name.
Edit: my point is you can call me Mike if you want. I don’t care. Just understand I don’t naturally respond to every variation of Michael shouted at me. It’s a common name.
My brain ignores names that aren’t mine. Mike, Mikey, Mickey, … you might as well shout Abraham. It’ll have the same effect.
For the food thing, as a Midwesterner I feel like I come across as making fun of the other person when I try too hard. Like the people who say “Bærthélōnã” after they get back from two weeks in northwest Spain; it’s not going to fit into my normal speech pattern, it’ll just sound like I’m trying to draw attention to it if I say “bûɽɽɽito.”
But for names? I dunno man, that’s your name. I don’t want you to feel left out if I’m pronouncing “Evelyn” and “Leo” and “Elliott” perfectly, but then I stumble over “Rekha” or “Urooj” or “Joãozinho.” I’ll try to at least get as close as I can to the way I hear you pronounce it.
I grew up here, being white doesn’t mean it’s not my culture. I don’t know jack about Mexican cuisine, but Tex Mex is my culture.
Yeah, if I was from the Southwest I’m sure it would be different. But as a Midwestern kid, our “culture” is almost entirely used to ferment milk for cheese.
I honestly feel like the “you’re trying to hard to pronounce the country/city/food name” vibe is silly anyways. If they pronounce it “Bærthélōnã” in Barcelona, then why shouldn’t I try to pronounce it that way? Especially these days in our hyper-connected world, I don’t really have an excuse of “well I never knew they said it that way”.
I don’t mean people who earnestly pronounce it the way they do in Barcelona, I mean the people who make a huge deal out of saying it as intensely as possible, trying to call attention to how well-traveled they are by making it sound super alien.
No. Even if it’s foreign, I don’t put on an accent. I Anglicise the name.
I have also a sinicised version of my name for the Chinese. I even introduce myself with it. I don’t expect any foreigner to use my English name.
My birthname is anglicized French. The English form is well-known. I hate it. But even the quebecois kinda butcher it. So I cope. No one’s gonna get it right, so why stress?
It’s a French name pronounced the English way?
Yep. It’s like Michel/Michelle/Michael, if the anglo form derived not from the Hebrew but the French form; and badly: Meekul (which isn’t bad by itself, but is just uncanny-valley weird).
To make matters worse, the discordant form is popular in some famous boomer/X vocalists; so I commiserate with Sade, a local clerk, and we get to eye-roll in unison about it.
Bah. It’s not peak-discordant (imagine a ‘Moy-KELLE’ that isn’t a Michaela), so it’s no significant source of stress; just a footnote . But enough about boring me.
I’m guessing it’s probably something along the lines of Aimee/Amy.
I don’t do the accent with names. It reminds me of when people say croissant with a French accent or “Mehico” instead of Mexico - I get those are the pronunciations if you’re speaking French or Spanish, but IMO the rest of the sentence is English so just use the English accent / pronunciation.
“So we are going to take our chicken and add a big pinch of MoOoOtZAdeLL” - Giada DeLaurentis
In those situations, I repeat it back to them and ask if I got it right. In my experience, people with accents tend to be amused when people earnestly struggle to pronounce their names.
depends on name, but probably not, don’t mock people’s voices
Well i know two Ralph, one american and one south African. I call them differently, South African Ralph doesn’t mind I call him Rolf, he thinks I got it bang on.
Just pronounce it as it’s supposed to be pronounced according to it’s written form
