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Re: squawk, gawk, and spoke (fwd)
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From: Philosophers <J.Goodenough@uea.ac.uk>
Jerry Goodenough writes:
There is much reference in this debate to "British" pronunciation of VN's name,
though there is, of course, no such thing, pronunciation in this country no
doubt varying as much as it does in the States.
I speak a pretty flat southern English - a little like BBC Received
Pronunciation, though somewhat rougher round the edges (my working-class
origins!), and certainly not to be confused with the (to my ears) horribly
strained noise made by aristocrats and the Royal Family with their vowel
sounds. I can mark the difference here easily: the Queen pronounces the
words 'oral' and 'aural' differently, but in my accent they sound the same.
That said, the central syllable of Nabokov for me rhymes almost exactly with
CLOCK. (This may be of no help to Americans, since their hard o sound is
different - an American CLOCK comes out a little closer to my CLARK.) But
what I get is Vla-DEE-mur Na-BOCK-uf. Which I thought was pretty much in
line with what VN himself wrote somewhere.
Interestingly, on the rare occasions when I hear VN referred to on the radio,
the BBC (like Sting!) always seem to call him NABBER-kov. Since they have
access to an expert pronunciation unit for foreign words, I wonder why
they say it this way.
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|* Dr. Jerry Goodenough *|
|* Philosophy Sector Tel: +44 (0)1603-593406 *|
|* School of Economic & Social Studies Fax: +44 (0)1603-250434 *|
|* University of East Anglia E: j.goodenough@uea.ac.uk *|
|* Norwich NR4 7TJ England *|
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Jerry Goodenough writes:
There is much reference in this debate to "British" pronunciation of VN's name,
though there is, of course, no such thing, pronunciation in this country no
doubt varying as much as it does in the States.
I speak a pretty flat southern English - a little like BBC Received
Pronunciation, though somewhat rougher round the edges (my working-class
origins!), and certainly not to be confused with the (to my ears) horribly
strained noise made by aristocrats and the Royal Family with their vowel
sounds. I can mark the difference here easily: the Queen pronounces the
words 'oral' and 'aural' differently, but in my accent they sound the same.
That said, the central syllable of Nabokov for me rhymes almost exactly with
CLOCK. (This may be of no help to Americans, since their hard o sound is
different - an American CLOCK comes out a little closer to my CLARK.) But
what I get is Vla-DEE-mur Na-BOCK-uf. Which I thought was pretty much in
line with what VN himself wrote somewhere.
Interestingly, on the rare occasions when I hear VN referred to on the radio,
the BBC (like Sting!) always seem to call him NABBER-kov. Since they have
access to an expert pronunciation unit for foreign words, I wonder why
they say it this way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|* Dr. Jerry Goodenough *|
|* Philosophy Sector Tel: +44 (0)1603-593406 *|
|* School of Economic & Social Studies Fax: +44 (0)1603-250434 *|
|* University of East Anglia E: j.goodenough@uea.ac.uk *|
|* Norwich NR4 7TJ England *|
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