• [object Object]@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Before you talk to me about loanwords, you’ll have to tell me how the name of Czech writer, author of ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’ is pronounced; and how the name of Slovenian neo-Marxist philosopher, author of ‘The Sublime Object of Ideology’ is pronounced.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        19 hours ago

        Do I need to be proficient in Czech and Slovenian to point out that loanwords exist in the English language with letters and diacritics that aren’t in the English alphabet? My point stands either way, and your response does nothing to address that. In fact, you’re kind of proving yourself wrong about Türkiye.

        If I’m remembering correctly from my time in Czechia, Čapek would be pronounced “Chapek,” but I could be wrong and that still wouldn’t change the fact that English includes loanwords with diacritics that aren’t in the English alphabet.

        I haven’t been to Slovenia, so I can’t help you with Žižek. But again, that doesn’t change the fact that English includes loanwords with diacritics that aren’t in the English alphabet.

        • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Explain to me what good loaning the diacritics does if speakers of English have no idea how to pronounce them and just wing it whatever which way, butchering the actual words.

          • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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            19 hours ago

            “Naive” would be pronounced like “nave,” i.e. the entrance of a church. “Naïve” is pronounced like “nah-eve.”

            “Resume” is pronounced like “ree-zoom” and means to unpause or continue something. “Resumé” is pronounced like “reh-zoo-may,” and means a document that briefly outlines your education and work experience to a potential employer.

            Proper nouns like place names and people names use the original spelling out of respect for people and culture. How would you like it if your name was “John” and you went to a different country where they don’t have the letter J, so they decided to write your name as “Yahn” without consulting you?

            • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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              18 hours ago

              “Naive” would be pronounced like “nave”

              What a naive and odd thing to say. No one reads ‘naive’ as ‘nave’. English-speakers can’t be bothered to have any semblance of regularity in pronunciation, but then when it comes to foreign words, you suddenly need the diacritics so badly, while still having no idea how they are actually read. I asked you about two foreign names with diacritics, and you couldn’t answer except from preexisting knowledge. Guess what, you likely don’t know how ‘Türkiye’ is pronounced either.

              Proper nouns like place names and people names use the original spelling out of respect for people and culture. How would you like it if your name was “John” and you went to a different country where they don’t have the letter J, so they decided to write your name as “Yahn” without consulting you?

              Do you realize even remotely how comical your question is, to someone who knows more than one language? If you went to a country where the language has none of the English letters because they don’t use a Latin-derived alphabet, and they didn’t write your name as ‘John’ because they can’t, how would you feel? Oh wait, maybe they should just transliterate your name’s pronunciation and write it with the letters that reflect that?

              Why don’t you write people’s and places’ names the way they are pronounced, out of respect, and instead insist on butchering their names like the name of the writer Karel ‘Kaypek’, who would certainly be surprised to learn that this is his name? Why do you write ‘Antonín Dvořák’, when his last name is read approximately as ‘Dvorjak’? Do you disrespect Čapek and Dvořák?