speak & spell: pronouncing & spelling foreign names & words

Daniel Greene, BA, Graduate Candidate, CI & CT, NIC Master

SPEAK & SPELL: HOW TO SPELL & PRONOUNCE

FOREIGN NAMES & WORDS

1Monday, November 12, 12

WORKSHOP: DESCRIPTION

We interpret in an increasingly multi-cultural world. We are daily confronted with foreign and/or idiosyncratic names and words that we donʼt know how to pronounce or spell. This workshop will teach participants the phonetical systems (phonology) of several of the worldʼs languages so that they recognize spelling patterns (orthography) to elevate their comfort and confidence while interpreting in an ever more international world.


The first solid-state talking toy. It would ask you to spell a word and tell you if you got it right or

wrong. Remember ET?“Be good.”

SPEAK & SPELL:

THE ‘80S TOY


Introductions and our names’ background

Phonology (how words /names sound)

Orthography (how they are spelled)

Application to interpreting

Sources for further study

WORKSHOP: AGENDA


“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” —Dale Carnegie

IMPORTANCE: NAMES


What is your name? What are its origins?

Shortened when your family came to U.S.?

Alternative spellings & pronunciations?

Say, “I hate it when people pronounce my name _____, I like it when people pronounce my name _____, and I love it when people pronounce my name _____.”

INTRODUCE: YOUR NAME


America is a land of immigrants with names from many countries and languages.

ASL interpreters are sheltered from various phonologies by migration patterns.

Interpreters are increasingly exposed to names and words from all over the world, so fingerspelling and pronouncing those words is part of our everyday work.

RATIONALE: FOR–FOR?


Names and words are rarely spelled with unique sounds or letter clusters; rather, they tend to follow the spelling conventions of the language from which they came.

If interpreters learn the spelling rules of various languages, they will be able to comfortably and confidently pronounce and spell international names and words.

SPELLING: FOLLOWS RULES


Demand: you don’t know how to spell it.

Control options:

“How is that spelled?”

“Spelled K-A-L-A-S-H-N-I-K-O-V?”

Sign and mouth “Sounds like _____.”

Spell it Kalashnikov.

DEMAND: CONTROL


phonology |fəˈnɑlədʒi| |foʊˈnɑlədʒi|

the branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), esp. in a particular language.

the system of relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language.

DEFINE: PHONOLOGY


orthography |ɔrˈθɑgrəfi|

conventional spelling system of a language.

study of spelling and how letters combine to represent sounds and form words.

ORIGIN late Middle English: via Old French and Latin from Greek orthographia, from orthos ‘correct’ + -graphia ‘writing.’

DEFINE: ORTHOGRAPHY


“Orthoepy is the art and study of proper pronunciation.” It comes from the Greek ortho, which means correct, and epos, which means word (Elster, 1999).

Correct pronunciation conveys intelligence and respect. It also removes barriers to comprehension on the part of our clients.

DEFINE: ORTHOEPY


You hear/see a foreign name/word. Do you:

recognize the name/word in its entirety?

recognize letters/sounds, infer sounds/letters?

use prior knowledge to make an educated guess as to the pronunciation/spelling?

PROCESS: INTERPRETING


alphabet |ˈølfəˈbɛt|

a set of letters or symbols in a fixed order, used to represent the basic sounds of a language; in particular, the set of letters from A to Z.

ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from late Latin alphabetum, from Greek alpha, bēta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.

DEFINE: ALPHABET


Phoenician (2000 BC) Greek (1000 BC)

Arabic Hebrew Cyrillic Etruscan

Russian Latin

HISTORY: ALPHABETS


Latin: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Cyrillic: а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

Hebrew: א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ך ל מ ם נ ן ס ע צ ץ ק ר ש ת

Greek: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ µ ν ѯ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω

COMPARE: ALPHABETS


آ alif ع aynب ba غ gaynت ta ف faع gim ق qafح ha ك kafد dal ل lamر ra م mimز zay ن nunس sin ه haض dad و wawط ta ي ya

ALPHABET: ARABIC


א alef מ memב bet ם mem sofitג gimel נ nunד dalet ן nun sofitה he ס samechו vav ע ayinז zayin פ peח chet ף pe sofitט tet צ tzadiי yud ץ tzadi sofitכ kaf ק qufך kaf sofit ר reshל lamed ס shin

ת tav

ALPHABET: HEBREW


Α α alpha Ν ν nuΒ β beta Ξ ξ xiΓ γ gamma Ο ο omicronΔ δ delta Π π piΕ ε epsilon Ρ ρ rhoΖ ζ zeta Σ σ sigmaΗ η eta Τ τ tauΘ θ theta Υ υ upsilonΙ ι iota Φ φ phiΚ κ kappa Χ χ chiΛ λ lambda Ψ ψ psiΜ µ mu ΩΩ ω omega

ALPHABET: GREEK


A a N eneB be Ñ eñeC ce O oCh che P peD de Q cuE e R ereF efe S eseG ge T teH hache U uI i V veJ jota W uve dobleK ka X equisL ele Y i griegaLL elle Z zetaM eme

ALPHABET: SPANISH


E & O doubled in English: green, moon.

E doubled in French: Sautée, Brûlée.

A doubled in Danish & Dutch: Kierkegaard, Aardvark, Afrikaans.

Hawaiian: Kaanapali, Hawaii. (Glottal break.)

None: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Swahili, et al.

LETTER DOUBLING: VOWELS


Also called gemination (after gemini, twins)

Meaning changed by single vs. doubled consonants; e.g. pining/pinning, anus/annus, bagu/baggu, taka/takka, beve/bevve.

Italian vs. Spanish words: pappa/papa, mamma/mama, panna/pan, anno/año.

German has double and triple consonants.

LETTER DOUBLING: CONSONANTS


French vowel clusters for one sound; e.g. au (café au lait), aux (la cage aux folles), eau (eau de toilette or beau), -eaux (beaux, the plural of beau) -aud (Mme. Toussaud’s), ault (Renault), -ot (Pinot Noir) all sound like O.

Other languages have vowel clusters that represent either one vowel, diphthongs, or triphthongs.

CLUSTERS: VOWELS


German consonant clusters; e.g., Schmidt has seven letters, and only one vowel.

Italian, Spanish, and Japanese have no consonant clusters. In Japanese, every consonant is paired with a vowel sound. That is why its non-logographic orthography is Hiragana, a syllabary.

CLUSTERS: CONSONANTS


Marks above/below letters to indicate vowel sounds.

French words, such as crème brûlée

German words, such as gemütlichkeit

Vietnamese vowels, such as a, ă, and â.

Hebrew: diacritics for vowels.

DIACRITICAL MARKS


DIACRITICS: HEBREWVowels & Canti!ation


logogram |ˈloʊgəˈgrøm|

a sign or character representing a word or phrase, such as those used in shorthand and some writing systems.

ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Greek logos ‘word’ + -gram.

DEFINE: LOGOGRAM


Chinese & Japanese names/words written in characters that represent meanings.

Names/words in Chinese and Japanese transliterated following different transliterators’ approximations of the original, native names / words. (Examples: xi & chi, feng shui pronounced fung shway.)

Sanskrit, for Indian languages, is logographic.

WRITING: LOGOGRAPHIC


syllabary |ˈsɪləˈbɛri|

a set of written characters representing syllables and (in some languages or stages of writing) serving the purpose of an alphabet.

ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from modern Latin syllabarium, from Latin syllaba (see syllable).

DEFINE: SYLLABARY


N is the only ending consonant (Nippon, Seikyo Shimbun). Most consonants end in vowel sounds, such as ka, ku, fa, fu.

English words written in Hiragana follow Japanese phonology: garufu, boiufirendu, garufirendu, miruku, seben ereben, sando witchi, maku donaru. No L or V sounds.

SYLLABARY: JAPANESE


SYLLABARYJapanese


Chinese names/ words only one or two syllables each; e.g., Chang, Wen, Li, or Tsao.

Japanese names/words tend to have two, three or four syllables; e.g., Honda, Seiko, Yamaha, Nakamura, Watanabe, Takahashi

Italian names tend to have two, three, or four syllables; e.g., Verdi, Puccini, Da Vinci, Corleone, Berluscone.

PHONOLOGY: NUMBER OF SYLLABLES


Dipthongs: two pure vowels make a blended vowel sound; triphthongs: three.

Languages have none–to–many diphthongs.

Italianate vowels: Italian vowels are pure: Ah, Eh, Ee, Oh (not a diphthong like O-u), and Oo. Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese have Italianate vowels.

VOWELS: DI/TRIPHTHONGS


French has nasal vowels ending in N: an, en, in, on, un. (Ex: Maman, en croute, Chopin, Montmartre, un-deux-trois)

Many languages have a nasal m, n, and ng.

Almost all languages have nasalization.

PHONOLOGY: NASALIZATION


Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese are tonal. Japanese is not.

Tonal languages use tones to distinguish homophones; e.g., “ma” can mean ghost, but, cheek/mother, tomb/grave, horse, or rice seedling depending on tone.

Vietnamese: Latin letters with diacritical and tonal marks; e.g., a, ă, â, ằ, ắ, ẳ, ẵ, ặ.

PHONOLOGY: TONALIZATION


HMONG: TONAL, NASAL, ALPHABETICAL

Bee (bee)

Chang (chahng)

Cheng (cheng)

Chue (che-u)

Dang (dahng)

Fang (fahng)

Ge (zhay)

Ger, Yeu (dzur)

Hang (hahng)

Lee, Ly, Le (lee)

Lor, Lo (law)

Khang (kahng)

Moua (moo-ah)

Neng (neng)

Pao (pow)

Sao (sow)

Sy, See (see)

Thao, Tor (taw)

Thong (tawng)

Tov (too)

Vang (vahng)

Vue (voo)

Xiong (shee-ong)

Yang (yahng)


SILENT LETTERS: WHY?

Changes in pronunciation after spelling conventions were set, such as how English kept changing after people began writing it; e.g., knife and knight.

Attempts at transliterating single letters from another language that have no corresponding letter in our alphabet; e.g., Ch for ח in Chanukah (corresponds to German Bach).

It is not “acceptable” to some languages to pronounce what others do; e.g. English does not start words with “ps” so we take the Greek psi (Ψ) and pronounce it sigh.


French has many silent letters in its orthography; e.g., final consonants S, T, and X as in Dupuis, Chevrolet, and La Cage Aux Folles. (However, final consonants are pronounced when followed by vowels as in “les amis,” “tout a l’heur,” and “beaux arts.” This is called liaison.)

English silent E changes pronunciation of preceding vowel; e.g., tap, tape; met, mete; sit, site; mop, mope; run, rune

Spanish has no silent letters except sometimes h, which was only added to clarify that the following u was not a v.

SILENT LETTERS


Emphasis: initial, penultimate, or final stress.

Initial stress; Latin: anno domini, patre, filio

Penultimate stress; Italian: spaghetti, spaghettini, cannoli, cannelloni

Final stress; French: Philippe, Desirée, Nicolas Sarkozy.

EMPHASIS: PLACEMENT


Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish all have “enyay” but the spell it differently.

Italian: “gn” e.g., lasagna.

Portuguese: “nh” e.g., caipirinha, piranha.

Spanish: n with tilde diacritic (ñ); e.g., mañana, piñata, Quiñones, Muñoz.

SOUND & SPELLING: ENYAY


Theta (IPA θ) is in few languages. Eth (IPA ∂) is even rarer. In French, th is always pronounced T, as in Mathilde and Thérèse).

In Castilian Spanish, all C’s and Z’s are pronounced θ. Contrary to popular belief, Spaniards do not lisp their S’s; e.g. “Gracias por me dar los zapatos a las cinco.”

RARE SOUNDS: THETA, ETH


Consistent: always pronounced as spelled

Avoids K unless in Greek words; e.g., kilo

English -tion = -ción. Ex: nación, concepción

Avoids double letters. ll = y/j e.g. tortilla

Th = T; e.g., theme = tema, rhythm = ritmo

Inm- instead of im- e.g., inmigración

ORTHOGRAPHY: SPANISH


Es- replaces S preceding a consonant; e.g., especial, estéreo, estudio, escuela.

Avoids Y as a vowel; y = i as in hidrógeno, dislexia, and gimnasta.

qua/quo = cua/cuo; i.e., ecuador, cuota

F replaces Ph; e.g., elefante, Ofelia, Filadelfia.

No silent letters (psychologist = sicológico)

ORTHOGRAPHY: SPANISH


Caste (social status and profession)

Religion (religious figures or saints)

Profession (a subset of caste)

State (geographical location)

Region (east, west, north, south)

NAMES VARY BY:


Some names have articles such as “the”

Arabic: Al; Spanish: El; French Le or La

Al Jazeera, El Cortez, LeBrun, LaBelle

LaShondra, Lakeisha, Leandra, Leroy

NAMES: ARTICLES


Names sometimes have prefixes.

Some have meanings, such as Ben (son of).

Some have no meaning but sound good.

NAMES: PREFIXES


“Prefixes including Chan-, Shan-, Ka-, and La- …which were used to create such names as Danell, LaTasha, Shandra, and Monisha.

The prefixes De-, Ja-, Tri-, Ni-, Wa- and Sha-, which were used to create names for both sexes” (Weiss, 1999).

NAMES: PREFIXES


“Suffixes such as -on, -won, -quon, -el, and -ell, which were used to create boys names such as Davon from David and Marquon from Mark. To give these names even a more distinctive twist, the suffix is stressed when pronounced” (Weiss, 1999).

International suffixes include -son/sohn/sen, -es/ez, sky/ski, -ton, -enko, -ian, -ovicz

NAMES: SUFFIXES(WITHIN THE NAME ITSELF)


Prefixes or suffixes in names may sound the same but be spelled differently and have different origins, for example:

Mc– is Irish;Mac- is Scottish

–sky is Russian, Czech;–ski is Polish

–sen is Danish, Norwegian, Swedish;–son is English;–sohn is German

–ez is Spanish;–es is Portuguese

Van– is Dutch;Von– is German

NAMES: HOMOPHONES


The value of uniqueness can be seen in:

Combined names and creative spellings (Weiss, 1999).

Unusual use of apostrophes & hyphens; e.g., D’Sean, Le–Vaughn, and even La—a (African-American baby names).

NAMES: IDIOSYNCRATIC


Names may be a combination of the parents’ names, such as Alwayne or Jodene.

Can you think of others?

NAMES: COMBINED


Merideth instead of Meredith

Lynda instead of Linda

Mikol instead of Michael

Donnyelle instead of Danielle

La—a instead of Ladasha

Can you think of others?

NAMES: CREATIVE SPELLING


Fingerspelling that is pretty to watch.

Sounds that are pretty to hear.

Rhythms and stresses that are interesting.

NAMES: AESTHETIC APPEAL


Foreign name/word pronunciation is native, near-native, and anglicized. Nakamura— native: slightly rolled R; near-native: Ah/Oo; Anglicized: short æ/uh and hard R.

Wiśniewski: Vish-nyefs-ski or Wiz-new-ski

PRONUNCIATION:NATIVE & NON-NATIVE


Pull a name out of the bowl and tag someone to spell it.

Give both the near–native and Anglicized pronunciations to help the speller know what they’re spelling.

Tag someone who hasn’t gone yet.

Keep it going for as long as time allows.

GAME: SPEAK & SPELL


Listen to nationality, spelling, and pronunciation of names. Notice patterns.

Take an introductory linguistics course.

Take foreign language courses.

Interpret foreign language courses and learn on the job.

Watch foreign films.

STUDY: FURTHER


Read the resources in the reference list.

Listen to foreign music and read the lyrics.

Travel / work / study abroad.

Listen to international accents / languages.

Respect diversity and thirst for knowledge.

STUDY: FURTHER


Sound systems (phonologies) & spelling systems (orthographies) of languages.

Ways to cope with the foreign names and words that we encounter as interpreters.

Techniques for mastering spelling & pronunciation.

Where to turn for further study.

RECAP: WHAT WE LEARNED


[email protected]

www.danielgreene.com a.k.a. www.terptrans.com

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LinkedIn: danieljamesgreene

Twitter: @danielgreene

CONTACT: ME


speak & spell: pronouncing & spelling foreign names & words

Education

greek alphabet

words names sound orthography

rules names

international names

alphabet alphabet lfbt

names background phonology

bc greek

greek orthographia