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by sillyquiet 1909 days ago
To re-iterate my point, it's not about 'respect' (respect for whom, exactly and why?) it's about communication.

If I were trying to say the word 'Volkswagen' to a German speaking person, I would do my best to pronounce it in a way they would understand. As most of the time I ever say the word 'Volkswagen' out loud it's to my fellow English speakers, pronouncing it in the expected English way seems way less pretentious and way more effective.
1 comments
mixedCase 1909 days ago
>seems way less pretentious

Or you could help do your part in normalizing pronouncing things correctly instead of perpetuating the perception that it's somehow "pretentious".

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fastball 1909 days ago
They're speaking English. The correct pronunciation of a "V" is in fact to make the english "V" sound.
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Bud 1909 days ago
Nope. Proper nouns are to be pronounced in whatever way is dictated by the country of origin.

Also, no, English is not very reliable when it comes to spelling vs. pronunciation.

(Former diction teacher, here.)

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fastball 1909 days ago
I'm going to avoid being snarky and point out this is merely the way you taught it. There is not hard and fast rule that says you have to do it this way.

Also, Vs are actually pretty consistent in English. Can't even think of a word with a V where the V doesn't sound like a V.

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Bud 1907 days ago
What's interesting here is that the exception proves the rule.

V is actually the only letter in English that is never silent.

Most other letters also have various possible renderings into pronunciation, especially the vowels—"i" for instance can end up being at least 5 different vowel sounds and also some consonant sounds.

So yes. As I pointed out, English is extremely irregular orthographically, in stark contrast to languages like German, French, or Italian, all of which have extremely reliable and simple pronunciation rules.

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sillyquiet 1909 days ago
The pronunciation is already normalized in English, and most people already pronounce it correctly in English for other English speakers.

Expecting non-German people to speak with German pronunciation is plain arrogant.

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