1. How to Pronounce International Names
RSL Retreat 2012
Stanford University

2. Part I: General Pronunciation Rules

3. Jingyuan Chen
Qingfei Luo

4. International Language Presentation - Chinese
Qingfei 庆飞 慶飛
Jingyuan 景媛 景媛

5. 汉 漢
Pin Yin
Simplified
Traditional

6. Qingfei
Xu Tao
Cao Cao
/tʃ/
/ʃ/ /au/
/ts/
Cheek
She Cow
Hats

7. Zhang Ziyi
Debiao Li
Hou Zi
/dʒ/ /dz/
/ə/
/əu/ /dz/
Java Kids
Idea
So Kids

8. Deqiang Qiu
Chunlei
Scott Hsieh (Xie)
/ə//tʃ/ /iəu/
/uən/
/ʃ/ /ie/
Idea Cheek yo-yo
when
She Yes

9. Useful Pinyin Pronunciation Tool

10. Acknowledge Wikipedia & Baidu Baike (Chinese Wikipedia)
Thank You!
Acknowledge Wikipedia & Baidu Baike (Chinese Wikipedia)

11. Thomas Christen
Ives Levesque

12. La prononciation des noms français
Ives Levesque
Thomas Christen

13. Survol (overview) Relatively close to English pronunciation
Most differences are subtle
Vowel sounds are a bit different
Dropped letters (mainly at the end of names)
Accents (é, è, ô, …)
Letter combinations (an, on, ch, …)
Male/Female variants
Many exceptions…

14. François
“Throaty”
soft
“nasal” inflexion
“wah”
Françoise

15. Bérengère
“throaty”
soft
“nasal” inflexion
flat, as in “meh”

16. Bragi Sveinsson

17. Names in Icelandic Emphasis is almost always on first syllable
Icelandic letters:
Þ: Th (as in thought)
ð: Th (as in this)
Æ: I (as in like)
Ö: U (as in sun)
All vowels can have acute accents: á (ow), é (ye), í (ee), ó (o), ú (oo)

18. Names in Icelandic R is trilled (rolled)
G is often almost silent when in between two vowels
Some other interesting facts:
Naming system is patronymic – no family names:
[Name] [Name of father] + son/dóttir (son/daughter)
Bragi Sveinsson
Last names not used much – if you refer to someone by last name, people will look at you weird

19. Prachi Pandit
Manoj Saranathan
Urvi Vyas

21. Two major language groups
Dravidian and Indo-Aryan (Australo-asiatic, Tibeto-Burman)
Roughly North vs. South (74% vs 24%)
Indo Aryan languages are derived from Sanskrit, Dravidian from Tamil/proto Dravidian
Very different grammar and sound rules

22. Some rules English transliteration is very arbitrary
e.g zh as in pazham found in Tamil/Malayalam
‘a’ sound is more common than Ah or <a>h
E.g. ravi shankar is not rAvi shankAr
Stress is usually equally distributed unlike English (unless it is not)
Vowel ending names are usually feminine and consonant ending names masculine
A and I sounding (e.g. prachi, urvi, preeti, lat)
Consonant ending (e.g. manoj, prasheel)
Indians conflate v and w

23. Interactive game

24. RSL Examples prAchI pandit urvI vyAs Preeti bAlchandani Sonal Josan
Mandeep Kaur
Manojkumar Saranathan

25. Tough names Mridula Maitreyi Radhika Siddhartha Nripjit Hrithik
Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar (Nobel laureate of the Chandra moon probe fame)
Venkatasubramaniam

26. Uche Monu

27. Three major ethnic groups in Nigeria
Yoruba
Igbo
Hausa
Within the three major language groups, there are various dialects
Ndi Igbo (Igbo people) are located in the south east part of Nigeria
Over 18 million Igbo speaking people
Igbo people are predominantly Christians (Catholic, Anglican and Others) and their faith plays a very intrinsic role in the family, community and the naming culture

28. Igbo Names
Consonants: The Igbo alphabet has a lot of compound consonants (ch, gb, gw, gh, kw, kp, nn, nw, ny)
Chinyere
Nwabugwu
Ikokwu
There are also many consonants that are combined in names
Njideka
Nduka
Mbelu
No two consonants stand together with the exception of “m”, “n” and “l” (these serve for emphasis)
Illoh
Nnenna
Mmadubuike

29. Vowels: Double vowels were traditional used in the Igbo language for vowel intensiveness
Maazi (Mazi)
Mbaamaonyeukwu (Mbama)
Ejiike (Ejike)
Mgbeeke (Mgbeke)
The long and the short forms of Igbo names
Emeka or Meks (Chukwuemeka)
Niki (Nkiruka, Nkilinwa)
Chichi (Chinyere, Chisolum)
Chuks (Chukwuka, Ogochukwu)

30. Common Naming Occurrences
All Igbo names (and Nigerian names in general) have a meaning
The Igbo people give their names to reflect their extensive experiences as a nation, reflective religiosity, social sophistication, and as a tribute to their traditional tenet
Examples
Market Day names: In Igbo land, there are 4 days when the market is open for shopping (Eke, Orie, Afor and Nkwo)
Okeke
Okorie
Okafor
Okonkwo

31. There are usually key words that serve as underlying roots in a name
Chi: Spirit/luck/personal God
Chioma: Good spirit/luck
Chinonso: God is nearby
Chukwu: God
Chukwuemeka: God has done well
Chukwudi: There is a God
Obi: Heart
Obiajulu: Heart is full of joy
Obiora: Heart of the masses
Nne: Mother
Nnenna: Fathers mother
Nneoma: Sweet mother
Nna: Father
Nnamdi: My father is alive
Obinna: Kind to his father
Oma: Fine/Good
Ifeoma: Beautiful
Nkeoma: That which is good

32. Juan Plata

33. RSL Retreat: Spanish Pronunciation
Juan Plata

34. Vowels A as in ”apple” and not “game” or “Andy”:
E as in “Bed” and not “He”
I as in “ee” in teeth not “I” in Pin
O like boat but stop before the w sound
U silent after Q and G otherwise like “O” in “Do”
Sounds “never” change but get shorter when stressed.

35. Consonants Consonants are pronounced as in English except:
C before e and i (cement,cinderella)
Ch always as in church and not monarch
G before e and i (more like an h)
H is a mute letter
J (like h in hat) not as in Jello or silent
LL kind of like y in yell
Ñ opiNIon
Q (ui, ue) U is silent
R (rolled)
RR (rolled strongly)

36. Rule of thumb Every Letter is pronounced
Exception: H is mute and U is not sounded in some cases as explained earlier.

37. Practice Fellow RSL/ISIS members: Francisco Gimenez Luis de Sisternes
Examples:
Maria Alejandra Lee
Lino Mejia
Helena Quiñonez
Guillermo Lopez
Arrillaga, Junipero, Alameda de las Pulgas

38. Hien Nguyen
Anh Van

42. Nguyễn
Vietnamese alphabet is Latin-based!

43. “Different” consonants
English closest
D/Gi (Giang / Duyên)
zebra
Đ (Đạt)
dad
Kh (Khanh)
???
Ng/Ngh (Nguyễn / Nghi)
sing
Nh (Nhàn)
caipirinha
Th (Thành)
tea
S (Sang)
shine
X (Xuân)
sun

44. Vowels a ă â e ê i/y o ô ơ u ư Combinations
Nguyễn, Châu, Khôi, Khương, Hiền, Tuấn

45. Accents a á à ạ ả ã Khanh, Khánh (raised voice) Thanh, Thành
Vương, Vượng
thơ, thở
Nga, ngã

46. Common Last Names Nguyễn (39%) Phạm (12.9%) Trần (9.5%) Lê (7.5%)
Huỳnh/Hoàng (5.1%)
Phan (4.5%) …
Văn (<< 1%) 

47. Names & Meaning Hồng (Rose), Mận (Plum)
- Chiến Thắng(Victory), Độc Lập(Independence),
Thanh Bình (Peace), Hoài Bão (Hope)
- Cát Tường (Happy & Healthy) , Hương Giang (Perfume River), Trúc Quỳnh, Lam Nghi, Miên Ân

48. Part II: Examples from Lucas

49. 陈 景媛 陳景媛 王 Jingyuan Chen Jean Yoo-an Chen Simplified Traditional
Pin Yin
Jean Yoo-an Chen

50. Thomas Christen
For part 2

51. Ives Levesque (Yves)
For Part 2

52. Simplified
Traditional
骆庆飞
駱慶飛
Qingfei Luo
Pin Yin
Ching Fay Law

53. Uchechukwuka Diana Monu
OO – CHAY – CHU – K(W)U –KA
Uche stands for wisdom
Chukwu stands for God
Together: God’s mind is the best
Variations: Uche/Uchenna/Uchechukwu/Uchechukwuka e.t.c
Unisex name
Most notable Nigerians with the name “Uche” are in sports
Ikechukwu Uche (football)
Kalu Uche (football)
Uche Okechukwu (football)

54. Nguyễn Minh Hiền (Hien Nguyen)

55. Juan Camilo Plata

56. My name Bragi Sveinsson
G is almost silent
Remember to roll the r
“Brye – yi”
“ei” in last name pronounced like “ay”
Brye-yi Svaynsson
Name of the god of song and poetry worshipped in N-Europe 1000 years ago

57. Văn Tú Anh (Anh Van)

58. urvI vyAs