Pronouncing Indian names

Factual Questions
1

Can anyone give me some guidance on pronouncing Indian names. I seem to get lost in the middle. It may be that I am putting stress on the wrong parts or not breaking them into syllables correctly. I am tone deaf and don’t have a great deal of talent at intentional imitation, but I do well enough on even fairly complicated words in English and German, at least partly because I know a general set of rules to apply. For example I can say Deoxyribonucleic acid without shortening it to DNA and and Lebensversicherung presents no trouble to me, so I think I should be able to tackle Venkatramana, Radhakrishnan, Surawatanaporn, and Madhusudhanan. Is dh like th, or do the syllables break between the d and the h? What are the general rules for stressing syllables? Any advice would be welcome. I do realize that there are many, many dialects and even languages in India, so general rules may not exist.

BTW, I have heard that India is an exonym. If so, what is the actual name of the country and how do I say it?

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Bump?

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[QUOTE=lee]
I think I should be able to tackle Venkatramana, Radhakrishnan, Surawatanaporn, and Madhusudhanan. Is dh like th, or do the syllables break between the d and the h? What are the general rules for stressing syllables? Any advice would be welcome. I do realize that there are many, many dialects and even languages in India, so general rules may not exist.
[/QUOTE]

You are absolutely correct about the multitude of languages in India. The Indian constitution recognizes 14 official languages, and there are many more spoken nationwide. Still, there are a few broad generalities you can employ to help make pronunciations easier.

The vowel transliterated as “a” is often pronounced much like the “u” in American English “cup”. It’s never like “a” in American English “hate” or “cat”.

The “h” after “t” , “d”, “p”, “b”, “k”, “g”, etc. represents aspiration – a puff of breath produced after the consonant is released. English “p”, “t”, and “k” are, in almost every dialect, is aspirated when initial (table, pool, Kate, etc.). By contrast, English “p”, “t”, and “k” are not aspirated after “s” (stable, stool, skate, etc.). In many Indian languages, the aspirated and unaspirated versions of these consonants are considered discrete sounds, with distinct letters for each. So when you see “th” in an Indian name, it’s not going to be as in “bath” or “bathe” – you can more or less pronounce it as a regular ol’ English “t”. The “dh” is a little trickier to nail, but just saying it as “d” will suffice.

As for stress … well, with so many languages to account for, you may be best served by asking someone to pronounce a difficult name for you slowly.

Bharat, I believe, is the official name of the country.

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Bordelond covered the aspiration issue. I don’t know how to give much more general guidance. On specific names, it’s helpful to know that many of them are combinations of two or more names.

Venkatramana - Venkata-rama-na

Radhakrishnan - Radha-Krishna-n

Surawatanaporn - I believe this is a Thai name, not Indian

Madhusudhanan - Madhu-sudhan-an

The “-an” endings are common in South India.

[QUOTE=bordelond]
Bharat, I believe, is the official name of the country.
[/QUOTE]

Both “India” and “Bharat” are recognized as official in the Indian Constitution.

5

[QUOTE=lee]
Venkatramana, Radhakrishnan, Surawatanaporn, and Madhusudhanan. Is dh like th, or do the syllables break between the d and the h? What are the general rules for stressing syllables? Any advice would be welcome.
[/QUOTE]

I think the point made earlier about names like this being compound names is an excellent one. All Indian languages are phonetic, and therefore there’s no ambiguity about how to pronounce a name when you see it written. Unfortunately, this doesn’t carry over to English at all well. The only thing I can suggest is lots of listening - and asking when necessary.

In these cases, I’ve bolded the stressed syllables, and added elongators when it’s more of an “aa” sound than an “uh”:
VENkatramanaa
RAAdhaakrishnan
MadhuSOOdhanan

My grandfather’s name was Doddaballapur Mahabalarao Jaithirtharao, just in case you were looking for a bit more of a challenge. :smiley: