How to Pronounce International Names RSL Retreat 2012 Stanford University

Part I: General Pronunciation Rules

Jingyuan Chen Qingfei Luo

International Language Presentation - Chinese Qingfei 庆飞 慶飛 Jingyuan 景媛 景媛

汉 漢 Pin Yin Simplified Traditional

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

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

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

Useful Pinyin Pronunciation Tool

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

Thomas Christen Ives Levesque

La prononciation des noms français Ives Levesque Thomas Christen

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…

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

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

Bragi Sveinsson

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)

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

Prachi Pandit Manoj Saranathan Urvi Vyas

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

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

Interactive game

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

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

Uche Monu

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

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

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)

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

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

Juan Plata

RSL Retreat: Spanish Pronunciation Juan Plata

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.

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)

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

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

Hien Nguyen Anh Van

Nguyễn Vietnamese alphabet is Latin-based!

“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

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

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

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

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

Part II: Examples from Lucas

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

Thomas Christen For part 2

Ives Levesque (Yves) For Part 2

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

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)

Nguyễn Minh Hiền (Hien Nguyen)

Juan Camilo Plata

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

Văn Tú Anh (Anh Van)

urvI vyAs