# What's the correct way to pronounce Ramanujan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504 "2016-05-10T21:03:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/21 "2017-01-12T22:37:42Z")
If by correct you mean closest to the pronunciation in the original language then the replies above give an accurate answer. But if you simply mean what’s the right way to pronounce it then it’s going to depend on what language you speak and where you live. The right way to pronounce the German city Munchen is Munich if you live in the US or UK, as Florence is the right way to pronounce Firenze. If you’re French the right way to pronounce Cervantes’ character is Don Quichotte, if you speak English and you’re a traditionalist it’s Don Kwik-sott, although many now choose to use a garbled form which is neither Spanish nor anything else. In short the pronunciations of names change when they enter a foreign language. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/22 "2017-01-13T02:01:43Z")
> [@ashtayk](#): > > I am from the same (Tamil Brahmin) community that Ramanujan comes from So I figured from your username! 🙂 [QUOTE=ashtayk] I can attest to the fact that for us, Ramanujan does not roll off the tongue as easily as Ramanujam. [/QUOTE] I’ve never understood how the final nasal gets chosen, or rendered into English, in various Sanskrit-derived Tamil names. I’ve seen TamBrahm names spelled Ramachandran, Raghavan, Subramanian **or** Subramaniam, Mahadevan, Sethuratnam, Vishvanatham, Narayanan, etc., and I cannot figure out why some have -am and others -an. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/23 "2017-01-13T02:03:12Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > The trouble with expressing pronunciation in terms of other words, is that your audience may pronounce those other words differently. > > I would be surprised if anyone said it as rama-NEW-jin, I thought the common pronunciation was rama-NOO-jin. Aha, you are maybe a non-US English speaker? To most Americans, “new” and “noo” are pretty much homonymous. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/24 "2017-01-13T04:23:24Z")
Well, that’s just the trouble **CurtC** is getting at, then. Some distinguish “new” (as in /nju/ “nyoo”, like “few”) from “noo” (as in /nu/ “noo”, like “foo”), and it makes this “phonetic spelling” confusing. Others don’t. Oh well… (For what it’s worth, I’m an American who draws the distinction, but it appears to be a quirk I picked up from my Indian parents, and then didn’t lose despite my American peers not doing so.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/25 "2017-01-13T15:32:09Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > The [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan) leads me to believe that the english pronunciation is closer, but I don’t know on what basis, wiki is making its choice regarding pronunciation. Maybe it’s changed, but the pronunciation I see puts the accent on the first syllable. So RAH-mah-NOO-junn, with the OO as in book. It may be difficult to get an English speaker to say it the proper Indian way, with two stressed syllables next to each other. The easiest way to try would be to think of it as two words, and say Rah Manujan. That’s the only way in English to have two stressed syllables next to each other. ---
**Author:** ![ashtayk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@ashtayk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashtayk)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/26 "2017-01-13T16:40:52Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I’ve never understood how the final nasal gets chosen, or rendered into English, in various Sanskrit-derived Tamil names. I’ve seen TamBrahm names spelled Ramachandran, Raghavan, Subramanian **or** Subramaniam, Mahadevan, Sethuratnam, Vishvanatham, Narayanan, etc., and I cannot figure out why some have -am and others -an. I have not either! 🙂 But generally speaking, while there are no rules - there is no ambiguity. Of there are exceptions - Subramanian(m) being one where it goes both ways. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504/27 "2017-01-13T17:47:15Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Aha, you are maybe a non-US English speaker? To most Americans, “new” and “noo” are pretty much homonymous. No, I’m from Texas. I don’t know the stats, but it seems to me that there a LOT of Americans who pronounce “new” and “noo” differently. I would have thought that it was most, but I realize my sampling is biased. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-pronounce-ramanujan/754504.md?page=1)