I hate mispronouncing stuff in company but sometimes I have to use words I’ve only read, and have kind of guessed at the pronunciation for my reading voice (ya know, that one inside yer head reading this to you.). Right, well the other night I heard someone answering a question about a vegetarian, and he replied with something about a “vejin”. The person he was talking to was polite enough to say “yes, a vejin” but I cringed (he meant vegan of course). I don’t want to make people cringe. do you? no!
so let’s all help each other not cringe. some names I don’t know how to say and would hate to guess wrong:
Fibonacci
Feynman ( :eek: )
t ’ Hooft
help me pronounce these correctly and/or add your own!
Feynman is fine-man, with emphasis on the first syllable. And the second syllable is pronounced with a schwa, of course. So you’re absolutely right, catsix.
I’ve never heard of 't Hooft, but given that it’s a Dutch name the “oo” should be pronounced like you’d say “oh”. But this may not be the way it’s commonly pronounced in the US, given that it’s accepted to butcher things like “gouda” and “Van Gogh”.
Somebody tell me how to pronounce Ngaio, as in the mystery writer Ngaio Marsh. Is it Nuh-GAI-oh, Ngh-AY-oh, or something I haven’t thought of yet? Kiwis, a little help here?
You’re right , but for some reason I’ve always read it a “Fen- ee- man”. I guess transposing the n and the y. Which would be particularly embarrassing as I know people who knew him (my mother had lunch with him once :D)
And for the life of me I can’t remember how to pronounce Palahniuk . I’ve even looked it up.
Heh. Only if you take the CTA. We have a rather large street here called “GO-thee”, or occasionally “Gothie” by those wearing too much eyeliner and lots of black clothing. If you ask the driver to stop at “Gur-tuh” he won’t stop, he has no idea what you’re talking about.
Of course, we also have "Dih-VAHN " (Devon) and “Paul-EYE-nuh” (Paulina) which actually intersect at a bus stop. Ask to be let off at “DEH-von” and “Paul-EE-nuh” and you might make it to Western before you notice you missed it.
