Re: I know EXACTLY what you mean!!
in reply to a message by sweet(:
I don't agree that Americans who pronounce Katy as "Kady" are saying it incorrectly. They are just saying it in an American accent. I wouldn't say that Americans who pronounce "latter" as "ladder" and "kitty" as "kiddy" are incorrect, either. It's the American accent, and there is nothing inherently wrong with it.
An American named Patty, who is used to hearing her name pronounced "Paddy", could go to Britain, hear it pronounced "Patty" with the T emphasized, and then say that the Britons are pronouncing it "incorrectly." I wouldn't support that, and I would think it was insulting. So it works the same way the other way around.
An American named Patty, who is used to hearing her name pronounced "Paddy", could go to Britain, hear it pronounced "Patty" with the T emphasized, and then say that the Britons are pronouncing it "incorrectly." I wouldn't support that, and I would think it was insulting. So it works the same way the other way around.
Replies
yes, exactly
I think it is just as insulting to demand the culture you are visiting to pronounce something unnaturally and incorrectly (to their ears and tongues) just to make YOU feel better. I would never think to go to Japan and feel upset that they pronounce Chloe as "Kuroee". They can't make the L sound, and it is not their fault, and it is rude and presumptuous of me to expect it of them.
I think it is just as insulting to demand the culture you are visiting to pronounce something unnaturally and incorrectly (to their ears and tongues) just to make YOU feel better. I would never think to go to Japan and feel upset that they pronounce Chloe as "Kuroee". They can't make the L sound, and it is not their fault, and it is rude and presumptuous of me to expect it of them.
I agree...
I could change the T in Katy, but I'd have to change my accent entirely. That's a lot to ask someone to do in the middle of a conversation. There's pronunciation preferences, and then there's accent preferences. If you don't like the way a name is pronounced in a certain accent, there's not much you can do about it unless you move. There are plenty of foreign names I only like pronounced with a different lingual accent, like Lena for example. It's not LENN-a, it's not LEE-na, and it's not LAY-na. It's a slightly different vowel sound that we don't really have in the American accent. For Americans to pronounce it that way, they'd need to completely reconfigure the muscles in their mouth in the middle of conversation. Even Etta I only like in the British pronunciation. I can't use it unfortunately because here I'm worried people here will think it's Edda, since they are often pronounced exactly alike.
I could change the T in Katy, but I'd have to change my accent entirely. That's a lot to ask someone to do in the middle of a conversation. There's pronunciation preferences, and then there's accent preferences. If you don't like the way a name is pronounced in a certain accent, there's not much you can do about it unless you move. There are plenty of foreign names I only like pronounced with a different lingual accent, like Lena for example. It's not LENN-a, it's not LEE-na, and it's not LAY-na. It's a slightly different vowel sound that we don't really have in the American accent. For Americans to pronounce it that way, they'd need to completely reconfigure the muscles in their mouth in the middle of conversation. Even Etta I only like in the British pronunciation. I can't use it unfortunately because here I'm worried people here will think it's Edda, since they are often pronounced exactly alike.