Saturday, March 12, 2022
Pronunciation
I had a bit of an epiphany, or maybe that's too strong, a realisation might be better. Something that had always grated on me was how native English speakers pronounced Himalayas. In all Indian languages it's pronounced with the stress on the 2nd syllable and the first "a" elongated like in "father" i.e., हिमलया as opposed to हिमालया .
And each time I heard it mispronounced I would wince. Then all of a sudden it came to me that there are any number of place names that are pronounced differently in English than in the native tongue. Paris for example. Or Madrid, or Mexico or Rio de Janeiro and I am sure a lot of others I don't even know about.
It's a completely unfair expectation, isn't it, I mean one has to know how the native speakers say it and also be able to say it that way. And after all that you are going to sound très pretentious, like those people who have been to Spain on vacation and insist on saying Bar"th"elona.
