If that principle applied throughout history, anglophones would have evolved either an armored ass or no ass at all. I believe they are pathologically incapable of grasping the phonology of foreign languages. Just ask any native English speaker the name of the Soviet Union’s general secretary that succeeded Stalin and preceded Brezhnev… realistically, nine out of ten will have no idea, and the remaining one will say he was some “cruise chef”.
we’re arrogant idiots who think foreign languages don’t exist, and shouldn’t exist if they are hard to pronounce. we’d rather make fun of them for being ‘weird’ than actually… learn and appreciate them.
but i at the same time most every country phonetized foreign names to make them pronounceable in the native language. Russians change the pronunciation/spelling of many foreign words to russify them.
As a linguaphile, I’ve always tried to pronounce words from other languages as correctly as possible. People tend to think that makes me weird.
Xenophobes think I’m being a snob, and “inclusive” people think I’m mocking the language or making some offensive joke or something. Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.
Step 1: Seek to prove that anglophones can’t pronounce foreign words.
Step 2: Ask a history question that has less to do with pronunciation than it does with an awareness of political events that happened on the other side of the globe, likely before the respondent was born.
Step 3: Ignore that even the people who were alive in that time were likely only getting their pronunciation from whoever was anchoring the news and may be blameless for only hearing an incorrect pronunciation.
If that principle applied throughout history, anglophones would have evolved either an armored ass or no ass at all. I believe they are pathologically incapable of grasping the phonology of foreign languages. Just ask any native English speaker the name of the Soviet Union’s general secretary that succeeded Stalin and preceded Brezhnev… realistically, nine out of ten will have no idea, and the remaining one will say he was some “cruise chef”.
i’m an anglophone that has studied 6 languages.
we’re arrogant idiots who think foreign languages don’t exist, and shouldn’t exist if they are hard to pronounce. we’d rather make fun of them for being ‘weird’ than actually… learn and appreciate them.
but i at the same time most every country phonetized foreign names to make them pronounceable in the native language. Russians change the pronunciation/spelling of many foreign words to russify them.
As a linguaphile, I’ve always tried to pronounce words from other languages as correctly as possible. People tend to think that makes me weird.
Xenophobes think I’m being a snob, and “inclusive” people think I’m mocking the language or making some offensive joke or something. Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.
Step 1: Seek to prove that anglophones can’t pronounce foreign words.
Step 2: Ask a history question that has less to do with pronunciation than it does with an awareness of political events that happened on the other side of the globe, likely before the respondent was born.
Step 3: Ignore that even the people who were alive in that time were likely only getting their pronunciation from whoever was anchoring the news and may be blameless for only hearing an incorrect pronunciation.
Step 4: Feel smug, I guess.