Comment on Should you copy a person's accent when pronouncing their name?
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
If the name depends on an accent, I’d say yes, but only to an extent.
A good example is the name Jesus. We tend to think of Christ, the Christian figure, when we read the name and think “Gee-zuhs.” But it’s a common Hispanic name and it’s pronounced “Heh-zoos.” Die Hard 3 made a joke about this. Samuel L. Jackson’s character is called Zeus. One of his people says “Hey, Zeus” and Bruce Willis’ character calls him “Jesus” but pronounces it the same. “Do I look Puerto Rican to you?!” Jackson cries out to him. “He said Jesus,” Willis says. “As in hey Zeus, shove a lightning bolt up your ass ZEUS!” Been ages since I watched it but I still remember that part.
Asking people how to pronounce their names and asking them back, attempting to do so, if it’s fine, and not only listening to what they say, but reading their body language, is the way to go.
I once knew a guy, can’t remember if he was Cambodian or Vietnamese, he didn’t give people his name because nobody could pronounce it correctly. I asked him to let me try. Took me a few tries, but I got it. Oddly I still remember it. Can’t fucking type it to save my life though. He did ask I still call him by the same name others do, so as not to create confusion, but he was happy I learned to say his name. And if it was just us, I could use it.
RBWells@lemmy.world 1 week ago
This is my approach. You are gonna get a kind of Americanized version because I can’t help it, but:
We have an Irinya in our department, soft r, I sounds like our long E - I am not gonna call her Irine! Soft R I am familiar with from Spanish, I’m sure it’s not spot on as she is Eastern European but close enough for her, she says it sounds right. One lady on our team can’t even hear what the R sounds like and can’t make the sound, she calls her eeReenya with the hard R. Still acceptable to Irinya, that’s what matters.
If it’s some sounds I can’t pronounce, I’d ask what they want to be called if I can’t make those sounds but in general yes I try to pronounce people’s names as they do, to the extent I can.