Semantic Issue, Sort of

DGS49

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2012
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Pittsburgh
Over the years, I have had a number of casual discussions about the preferred way of pronouncing city names in foreign countries. There is mild disagreement on the subject, believe it or not.

Say you are a hockey fan. Most hockey fans that I know make an attempt to cite the city and team of Quebec with the French pronunciation (approximately, "Kay-beck"). Very nice. But will "you" also pronounce Montreal with the silent 't' and roll the French 'r'? Maybe.

And is this a tenable policy for pronouncing those foreign names? For example, will you identify the capital of Italy as "Roma," or of Austria as Wien (pronounced "Veen")? Or do you prefer, "Vienna," which is actually the ITALIAN name for Austria's capital, which we English speakers have adopted because...we liked the sound of it. Will you speak of Muenchen or "Munich"?

And what about Peking/Beijing? I seriously doubt whether either pronunciation is even recognizable to a native of that fair city as an attempt to mention it. Same for Seoul, Tokyo or Shanghai.

My opinion - it should be obvious by now - is that we should go ahead and pronounce those names in ENGLISH, or an English rendering, even if doesn't accurately duplicate the name as pronounced in the local language. Trying to do otherwise generally makes one sound foolish. In my opinion, of course.

BTW, having visited it more than once, I love Kweeeeeebeck (aka, "Quebec").
 

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