Pronunciation of names in another language.
On CNN Español and other TV channels , even those presenters and journalists whose Spanish is excellent, when they mention an English name like John Kennedy, Bill Clinton , Winston Churchill etc. they shift their pronunciation to English and then resume their Spanish pronunciation.
What do you do? Do you Hispanize (?) or Englishize(?) the pronunciation of a name so that you say everything with the same pronunciation? Or you pronounce a name in its original language?
7 Answers
When I say my name I say it as a Spanish speaker. Of course 99% cannot say it anyway. I have fun just hearing the attempts.
I pretty much attempt to follow the same principles stated by Hucklebeary in this similar thread a few years ago.
We are far away from US and also from Europe so maybe this is the reason why we don't tend to stop our Spanish pronunciation when we mention an American name or a French name etc. Even people who speak English or French well say it all with a Spanish pronunciation . If they try to pronounce them with the French or English phonetics I think they want to show off .
I , personally "hispanize my pronunciation " because I would be embarrassed to change my pronunciation even though I know quite a bit of English or French pronunciation. It seems that in the US they aren't ashamed.
For example here we pronounce "Twitter" as if it were "Tuiter" in Spanish.
Only a curiosity.
I would follow the European system. Pronounce foreign words like a native speaker. I don't anglicize the words that English-speaking countries use. If I anglicize, I only do it to native speakers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
Here's an example of a Japanese word that's anglicize with IPA phonetics. Non-native speakers pronounce this word correctly. karaoke - correct pronunciation /?k??r????k?/ & anglicized pronunciation /kærio?ki/ or /?k?ri?o?ki/
The British can pronounce foreign words like French & other languages from the continent because of it's proximity to the English Channel & continental Europe. The Americans can pronounce Spanish words with ease because of it's proximity to Mexico & Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Americas.
My experience has been different. It seems that the TV and radio announcers can pronounce foreign names in every other language correctly EXCEPT Spanish. I have heard them pronounce French, Russian, and even Arabic, (which is hard for me) without a major flaw. However when they try a Spanish name, there is a problem. Some family names like Martínez or García are so common as they can get them right. But just let them try to pronounce "Ciudad Juárez" and what comes out is almost unrecognizable,
I tend to use Spanish pronunciation too. I had a similar experience to Patch a couple of years ago. I was asking whether a bar had WIFI (wy fy)... Hay wy fy aquí? and the lady was looking at me all puzzled. I repeated it, then she paused and said ....... ohhh wiiii fiiii.
So of course,after that I always ask for wiiii fiiii lol.
I was talking to two Spanish girls a few years ago. When the conversation got round to technology I asked them if they used google a lot (we were talking in Spanish but I used the English pronunciation). They both gave me blank stares. I repeated it but this time they stared at each other with bewildered expressions on their faces. I couldn't believe that they hadn't heard of Google so I said it slower. Still no recognition. Finally I explained the word and the penny dropped
- Aaaahh!.............GU-guel!
I learned my lesson and now I approximate the Spanish pronunciation of English words
Yu-toobeh (Youtube) Tuee-tair (Twitter - as Polenta said) OO dos (U2) and so on
When I'm speaking English I always use English pronunciation for Spanish words. Switching pronunciation in the same sentence just sounds naff to me
