Pronouncing ‘Foreign’ Names Redux

1

Comments

Apropos the Pronouncing ‘Foreign’ Names business, Eugene Volokh reminds us that it’s not just Hispanic surnames that cause problems:

[W]hen you bring an unusual name to a foreign country, you have to expect that people won’t always pronounce it the way you do. But if you want to humor me, please say it in a way that rhymes with “Pollock” (with the accent on the first syllable, of course). It’s not the standard Russian pronunciation, but it’s the one I use myself in English.

I learned my Russian pronunciations from The Original Pavel Chekov and had always internally pronounced Eugene’s last name as if it ended with -wagon.

One response to “Pronouncing ‘Foreign’ Names Redux”

  1. …as if it ended with -wagon.

    ROFLMAO

    This is one of the primary reasons I continue to read OTB, James.