How to Pronounce International Names

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

2. Part I: General Pronunciation Rules

3. Jingyuan Chen QingfeiLuo

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

5. 漢 汉 Pin Yin Traditional Simplified

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

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

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

9. Useful Pinyin Pronunciation Tool

10. Thank You! Acknowledge Wikipedia & BaiduBaike (Chinese Wikipedia)

11. Thomas Christen Ives Levesque

12. La prononciation des nomsfrançais 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. BragiSveinsson

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 UrviVyas

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.gzh as in pazham found in Tamil/Malayalam • ‘a’ sound is more common than Ah or <a>h • E.g. ravishankar is not rAvishankAr • 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 • prAchIpandit • urvIvyAs • PreetibAlchandani • SonalJosan • MandeepKaur • Manojkumar Saranathan

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

26. UcheMonu

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 • Oma: Fine/Good • Ifeoma: Beautiful • Nkeoma: That which is good • Nna: Father • Nnamdi: My father is alive • Obinna: Kind to his father

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 • ÑopiNIon • 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 lasPulgas

38. Hien Nguyen Anh Van

42. Nguyễn Vietnamese alphabet is Latin-based!

43. Consonants

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

50. Thomas Christen