RE: Pro's & Kin's

[Peter Murray <pete@partnercomm.com>]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003, Bill O'Neill wrote:

> Sven writes:
> > She's a Peruvian.
> >
> > Her name is Mandalit del Barco.
> 
> Interestingly, that site says, "Born in Lima, Peru, to a Peruvian father and
> Mexican-American mother, Mandalit grew up in a small town in Kansas and in
> Oakland, California. She began her journalism career while a student at the
> University of California, Berkeley...."
> 
> I guess that takes it back to my original remark about how she heavily accents
> her name in sign-off, erswhile reveals no hint of a Latino accent in her
> discourse.  All that aside, and I consider that a very small matter on a slow
> news day, she seems to do some great work.

Her parents gave her a name, which is pronounced a particular way in 
Spanish. Why should she corrupt the pronunciation of her name to suit 
those who don't speak her first tongue? No doubt it sounds curious, but 
only because we don't experience it very often. She is capable of 
pronouncing it correctly, and thus she does.

The only reason we corrupt the pronunication of a foreign word or name is
because a) it takes effort and practice to get it right, and b) lifetimes
of hearing that corruption has entrenched it into our coloquial speech -
to the point that it sounds strange to hear it pronounced correctly.

That said, I pronounce "Paris" as most of us do (Paar-is), because I
prefer to not leave the impression that I'm being a snob...

-Peter Murray (N3IXY)
Pittsburgh, PA