Re: Naming Conventions - Was: Asha Bhosle Interview...


Deepak Sabnis wrote:
My final post on this off topic thread for RMIM. With apologies to those not
interested.

1. We have names that are native to our origin. Our languages tend to be
phonetic. So we write it correctly in our own language.
2. When we create an English spelling for our name, we bring to the table
our own sense of phonics in Enlish language, which tends to be different
from those from other parts of the world (or India).
3. So when some one tries to pronounce our name using the spelling we
created for our name, it sounds different.

Example -
If I want my American friends to pronounce my name (Deepak) correctly, I
tell them to think of two Ensligh words -
1. Thee (from old English, meaning 'you')
2. Puck (as in a hockey puck)
Then I tell them to say these two words together. My name comes out just
fine from their mouths after that.

Cheers....

Deepak

Not really. Not if they pronounce "Thee" correctly. Most Indians living
in the west get the sound of "th' correctly after a bit of practice.
But back in India, school instructors almost always teach 'th' as the
soft 'd'. Not to mention the fact that the sound of "p" is very
prominently err...ejaculated in American & Queen's English as opposed
to the soft p in Indian English. In my experience, Americans hear the
average desi's 'p' as 'b'. As an American to say 'popat'. :-)

Of course, the k & c sounds in Indian English is a bit different from
the kh sound that you get here. Again, Americans hear our k/c as g.
Most people know about other alphabets like T, V and W. (*)

But i do understand what you're trying to convey. By default, they
would pronounce your name as D-Pack.

http://www.fonetiks.org/ (click on the words and then move your mouse
over the letters "th" to hear the sound in various accents).

(*) All of the above fundas from an accent class that I attended here
in the Bay Area. It was eye-opening indeed. The class had people from
various countries - every one of us was convinced that were pronouncing
words correctly. But to the rest of the students and the instructor, we
were not. [Typical example, the Chinese students were swallowing the
's' sound in plurals e.g. 'cars' sounded like 'car' to the rest of us.
But they were going, "But I am saying car". :-) The instructor then
asked them to hisssssss with a paper in front of their mouths. If the
paper shook, they were saying it correctly :-)]

Cheers
Arun

.

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