The episode of Seinfeld that is my life is almost over! No longer will I have to pretend to know the names of the neighbors that my boyfriend and I are getting to know! They told us once, but we completely forgot. Now they’re on vacation and have asked us to check in on their cat and get their mail for them, so we finally have their names!
The thing is, how the hell do you pronounce Bindumadhav? 
…Mulva?
WIN
It’s pronounced exactly the way it’s spelled.
Okay, okay
Break it down.
Bindu - madhav
Bin - du - ma - dhav
['bɪn d̪u 'mə d̪ʱəv]
The d are dental and the second one is aspirated. The first syllable rhymes with English “bin.” The u is a pure “oooooo” sound; don’t glide it or diphthongize it.
It’s really a pretty straightforward name, not much harder than many names you hear in the U.S.
look, buddy, the only IPA I know has malt and hops in it.
Well thank you for the lovely explanation. However straightforward you think it is, I had never seen it written and only heard it spoken once before now, so I’d prefer to ask and be safe than mispronounce it and offend my neighbor.
why not just ask them again and learn the proper way, instead of asking us? I mean, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be offended if you ask them directly, at least it shows some effort to learn.
I’d prefer not. We’ve known them since early September, so I think it’d be rude to say, “oh by the way, what was your name again?”
And since it’s already been answered, no harm no foul. My confidence in the Dope remains high.
I’d think the name is Hindi, not Hindu. That’s assuming the family is of Hindi origin, of course. It could be a name from another language of India.
And FWIW, I’m extremely sure they didn’t know our names until here recently when the situation was reversed. We were out of town on a visit and FedEx needed a signature for a package, so they signed for it and held it for us til we got home. Since then without fail they ALWAYS address us by our names, before then it was always, “Hey neighbor!”
So yeah, I have no qualms learning their names the same way. 
A few days I tried being sneaky/clever figuring out their names. I asked if our names were difficult for them, like theirs were for us. They said their names were Hindu, as were they, and came from Hindu mythology.
mmm-kay.
so you think they’re so stupid that they won’t be able to comprehend a native English speaker having a little trouble pronouncing their name? christ, graduate middle school more.
What exactly is your problem? I had a factual question, it was answered, and that was the end of it. If you’d like to go on a rant, the Pit is the place to do it, not here.
Speaking as someone with a long Hindu name, no one has ever offended menby mispronouncing it, because basically everyone mispronounces it. What offends me is any song and dance that emphasizes how unusualmor difficult it is. My advice in these situations is to just speak every syllable without dropping any letters without thinking that you have to know in advance how to say it. Or even after it’s explained to you. Believe me unless you have experience with Indian languages or languages with similar phonemes. If your friend thinks your pronunciation is too awful he’ll correct you himself. It’s no big deal n
It’s definitely a Hindu name I might also be a Hindi name.
Well I definitely appreciate your first hand experience! We’ve never done any “song and dance” just avoided using it just as they did us before they saw it written.
[Moderator Warning]
jz78817, insults are not permitted in GQ. Since you’ve already been cautioned about this in another forum, I’m making this an official warning. Don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator