What's in (my niece's) name
Last weekend, I went to Madison, mostly to hang out with my niece and my sister. Which, in spite of everybody over there being sick to some extent or another, I actually managed to do. And Anna and I actually wound up having the longest and deepest conversation in quite a while. We talked head-on about some of the things that we never really talk about aloud, and I found out some interesting and enlightening things. I may end up touching on some of those things in a friends-locked post or two - but for now, I wanted to focus on the part that's a bit more lighthearted.
Over the course of our conversation, Anna mentioned how, when she thought of a Russian name to give to her child, she thought that the name "Nadezhda" for a daughter would be pretty simple for Americans to pronounced. I said that I certainly would have thought the same thing.
But turned out that it wasn't as simple. The "ж" sound, which was as natural to us Russians, say, a "s" sound, keeps throwing Anna's in-laws and friends off. Maybe it's because it's represented by letters "zh" in Latin alphabet, and I know I have no idea how "z" and "h" add up to a "ж" (which I like to describe as like a "j" sound without the "d"). Then again, Americans don't seem to have any trouble pronouncing the "ж" in "Dr. Zhivago."
Anna talked about how non-Russian speakers keep pronouncing it "Naderzhda."
"Where do they get the 'R'?" she lamented, and I had to agree.
But then again, sounds that are represented by one letter in Cyrillic but two letters in Latin seem to throw Americans off period. Like how "Nadya," the diminutive form of my niece's name, gets pronounced "NAH-dee-ah" instead "NAH-dya." While the "я" in "Надя" is clearly one letter, "ya" is two. And it's not like the "y" is used consistently in romanization of Cyrillic words. It can be used to represent sounds like ya, yo and yu, but it is also used to represent the "ы" sound, which has no English equivalent whatsoever.
Thing is, according to Anna, it's not like the proper pronunciation of my niece's name can't be taught. She devised a song (Well, a riff on an existing song) and that seems to work as a learning aid.
When I mentioned this to tweelore, she said that she didn't see why that was so hard - but she no only has quite a bit more background in Russian culture than most Americans, but she is also a huge anthroponomastics nerd (there's a reason why I talk about her awesome name-knowing powers without any irony whatsoever). And she's the only American I ever met who managed to learn how the pronounce the "ы" sound.
I suppose it all comes down to our biases. As I learned the hard way when I tried to teach Lore some Russian over a decade ago, there's a lot of stuff about Russian that seemed obvious and natural to me, but it wasn't obvious at all to someone who didn't grow up with the language.
And, even if Anna's friends and in-laws can't pronounce my niece's name properly... At least "NAH-dee-ah" is less of a mangling than "Naderzhda." And, ultimately, I am not that much of a stickler.
After all, in my 21 years in this country, I still can't tell a difference between a "v" and a "w." Or pronounce whatever the "th" sound is supposed to be.
Over the course of our conversation, Anna mentioned how, when she thought of a Russian name to give to her child, she thought that the name "Nadezhda" for a daughter would be pretty simple for Americans to pronounced. I said that I certainly would have thought the same thing.
But turned out that it wasn't as simple. The "ж" sound, which was as natural to us Russians, say, a "s" sound, keeps throwing Anna's in-laws and friends off. Maybe it's because it's represented by letters "zh" in Latin alphabet, and I know I have no idea how "z" and "h" add up to a "ж" (which I like to describe as like a "j" sound without the "d"). Then again, Americans don't seem to have any trouble pronouncing the "ж" in "Dr. Zhivago."
Anna talked about how non-Russian speakers keep pronouncing it "Naderzhda."
"Where do they get the 'R'?" she lamented, and I had to agree.
But then again, sounds that are represented by one letter in Cyrillic but two letters in Latin seem to throw Americans off period. Like how "Nadya," the diminutive form of my niece's name, gets pronounced "NAH-dee-ah" instead "NAH-dya." While the "я" in "Надя" is clearly one letter, "ya" is two. And it's not like the "y" is used consistently in romanization of Cyrillic words. It can be used to represent sounds like ya, yo and yu, but it is also used to represent the "ы" sound, which has no English equivalent whatsoever.
Thing is, according to Anna, it's not like the proper pronunciation of my niece's name can't be taught. She devised a song (Well, a riff on an existing song) and that seems to work as a learning aid.
When I mentioned this to tweelore, she said that she didn't see why that was so hard - but she no only has quite a bit more background in Russian culture than most Americans, but she is also a huge anthroponomastics nerd (there's a reason why I talk about her awesome name-knowing powers without any irony whatsoever). And she's the only American I ever met who managed to learn how the pronounce the "ы" sound.
I suppose it all comes down to our biases. As I learned the hard way when I tried to teach Lore some Russian over a decade ago, there's a lot of stuff about Russian that seemed obvious and natural to me, but it wasn't obvious at all to someone who didn't grow up with the language.
And, even if Anna's friends and in-laws can't pronounce my niece's name properly... At least "NAH-dee-ah" is less of a mangling than "Naderzhda." And, ultimately, I am not that much of a stickler.
After all, in my 21 years in this country, I still can't tell a difference between a "v" and a "w." Or pronounce whatever the "th" sound is supposed to be.