"Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name Bzjxxllwp is always pronounced 'Jackson.'" So wrote Mark Twain many decades ago. After I finished chuckling, I thought some more and realized tat names slant off in all directions when they are pronounced differently in different regions of the world.
For example, my surname is Strachan. In some parts of Scotland, mostly in upper class areas, the name is pronounced "Strawn." In other parts of Scotland - among coal miners, for example - it is pronounced "Strakkan." The Scots tld me that both pronunciations are proper and acceptable. Not, however, to in my ethnic soul. Coming from poor coal-mining stock makes my name irrevocably "Strakkan."
It is wonderful how defensive and rigid we can be about the names we carry, and of which we are pround. Our biases get expressed subtly but clearly in this way. I once knew a woman, for example, whose roots were Anglophone, but from the rural Eastern Townships of Quebec. Her name was Beauchamps, which I would pronounce as "Bo-shomp." She, on the other hand, stoutly maintained that her name was "Beech - am." A whole history of ethnic rivalry in Quebec was told in that pronunciation.
In the Bible we have perhaps the most telling example. In the Book of Judhes, chapter 12, verses 1-15, we have the story of the bitter war between two Semitic tribes, the Gileadites and the Ephriamites. The two tribes fight a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no sh sound in their language, pronounced the word with an s and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.To this day, a "shibboleth" is a linguistic marker that is characteristic of members of a group, which is used by another group to identify members of the first group. Such identification typically has bad consequences for the members thus identified.
Aless lethal example can be found in the difference in pronunciation of a name by people who have a French cultural background, as opposed to those whose language is English and English only. In the US National Football League, there was a famous quarterback who dominated the game for a couple of decades. His name: Brett Favre. He was from Louisiana, where there is a French strain in the back-culture. The rest of the USA, with little or no French back-culture, could only pronounce his name as "Far-ve." It was much easier for Canadians, with a French strain in their back-culture, to say "Fav-re."
Over centuries, names change and evolve with the introduction of different ethnicities into the families that carry the name. One of my friends, now deceased, was named "Uhrich," pronounced "You-rick." My wife's German relatives insisted that the name should be pronounced "Oo-rish." Proper German. My friend was not only unconvinced by this explanation, but more than a little cool to the suggestion that he was pronouncing his surname incorrectly!
I knew a "Byron," whose name had been "Bjornson," a "Lily", whose name had been "Song Lili." So…what is your name? Where did it come from? How did your ancestors say it, or change it? Seek and you shall find!
For example, my surname is Strachan. In some parts of Scotland, mostly in upper class areas, the name is pronounced "Strawn." In other parts of Scotland - among coal miners, for example - it is pronounced "Strakkan." The Scots tld me that both pronunciations are proper and acceptable. Not, however, to in my ethnic soul. Coming from poor coal-mining stock makes my name irrevocably "Strakkan."
It is wonderful how defensive and rigid we can be about the names we carry, and of which we are pround. Our biases get expressed subtly but clearly in this way. I once knew a woman, for example, whose roots were Anglophone, but from the rural Eastern Townships of Quebec. Her name was Beauchamps, which I would pronounce as "Bo-shomp." She, on the other hand, stoutly maintained that her name was "Beech - am." A whole history of ethnic rivalry in Quebec was told in that pronunciation.
In the Bible we have perhaps the most telling example. In the Book of Judhes, chapter 12, verses 1-15, we have the story of the bitter war between two Semitic tribes, the Gileadites and the Ephriamites. The two tribes fight a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no sh sound in their language, pronounced the word with an s and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.To this day, a "shibboleth" is a linguistic marker that is characteristic of members of a group, which is used by another group to identify members of the first group. Such identification typically has bad consequences for the members thus identified.
Aless lethal example can be found in the difference in pronunciation of a name by people who have a French cultural background, as opposed to those whose language is English and English only. In the US National Football League, there was a famous quarterback who dominated the game for a couple of decades. His name: Brett Favre. He was from Louisiana, where there is a French strain in the back-culture. The rest of the USA, with little or no French back-culture, could only pronounce his name as "Far-ve." It was much easier for Canadians, with a French strain in their back-culture, to say "Fav-re."
Over centuries, names change and evolve with the introduction of different ethnicities into the families that carry the name. One of my friends, now deceased, was named "Uhrich," pronounced "You-rick." My wife's German relatives insisted that the name should be pronounced "Oo-rish." Proper German. My friend was not only unconvinced by this explanation, but more than a little cool to the suggestion that he was pronouncing his surname incorrectly!
I knew a "Byron," whose name had been "Bjornson," a "Lily", whose name had been "Song Lili." So…what is your name? Where did it come from? How did your ancestors say it, or change it? Seek and you shall find!
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