In Reply to: Exactly posted by ej on January 05, 2025 at 17:15:30
Thank you for the thoughtful response.
I love the Paris example. There was a time where everyone was showing off the pronunciation of Kiev they heard the day before. And, correcting you if you didn't use the "pronunciation of the week." Why? I guarantee that if I'm travelling in Mexico, I'm not going to correct their use of Nueva York, or take them to task for their (or a French person's, for example) pronunciation of Chicago.
It would be hilarious if the people that are pedantic about the pronunciation if Kiev, or Qatar, or whatever else, started going around talking about Paree. Every country adapts the pronunciation of place names and people names to fit their own language. Imo, it's ok, and there's nothing wrong with it.
I appreciate what your saying about how you pronounce your own name in keeping with the Spanish language. But, how much are you pronouncing names that come from non-English/non-Spanish parts of the world in accordance with their native pronunciation?
If you were calling role, how would you pronounce Thibodeax? Or any of the millions of names people have in the US that don't come from England or Spain? I know that my pronunciation of most non-English, non-Spanish names is going to sound nothing like what they do in their country of origin. And, there is virtually nothing I can do about it. 1) there are too many countries of origin for me to learn all of the national and regional pronunciation rules. 2) My mouth muscles are not trained to make many of those sounds. Some languages are closer to what my mouth can do than others. Like, Italian, I can do pretty well except for the gl thing, especially on gli. But, French. It would be nearly impossible for me to not mispronounce most of the language and names. And, I've been complimented on my French pronunciation before. But, my mouth muscles weren't ever trained to move those ways. My pronunciation will never be accurate, really.
So, don't take offense that you have to spell your name out. Or, that even after you pronounce your name correctly it's not repeated back to you correctly. Unless you're an expert in the pronunciation of all dialects. I guarantee you that you're mispronouncing peoples names. And, that's ok.