Deferring to people's own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English.Unnatural? Limits? SO-tuh-my-er sound utterly horrible to my native English-speaking ear, if we're taking a freaking vote. Having learned about the story from Wonkette (here), there's little left to be said that Wonkette didn't say:
Pronouncing a proper noun in its natural Spanish way “is something we shouldn’t be giving in to.” How is this “giving in to” anything?I'll let you, gentle reader, click through for the Rest of the Story. (And remember, Wonkette is the very embodiment of 'snark.')
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_abe0p86QmVA/Sh3nY-QCf-I/AAAAAAAABbQ/x5rbNE34jDY/s320/jih_nf7.gif)
Image from the ToBI folks at Ohio State, here. (If you don't know about ToBI, check it out.)
9 comments:
Oh, the rightwing's gutter is running over with insane reactions to her nomination. Check out this:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/conservative-whispers-to-hill-reporter-concern-about-the-impact-diet-will-have-on-her-jurisprude.php?ref=fpblg
All Muricans ought to have their names pronounced in Murican, dangnabbit.
At the airport last night some gate agent was calling for "Passenger Jimenez" - pronounced like "Jim". I was quite startled: I'd have thought the correct pronunciation of at least the J would have been fairly close to universally known...
By 'correct' you mean Murican Correct or Foreign Correct?
Anon: Sigh.
In the second sentence I actually meant Furrin Correct. I just thought Jose Jimenez was too well known...
I know well educated people from the SW USA who don't know (or once didn't) how "eau" in French is pronounced.
I once was that French-deaf, too.
Why would SO-tuh-my-er be the "natural English pronunciation"? Wouldn't that be SO-tuh-may-er or SO-tuh-mair?
Isn't the world's best high-jumper ever named by this name?
Is "Foreign Correct" the same thing as "Illegal Alien"?
Well at least he's consistent. He's always insisted on "Scal-ya" like "Dahlia".
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