A Proper Noun

First working day of Std. 10th.. 

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Free Lecture

I'm sitting wid a few folks around me... who are keenly listening about my trip to Colombo.. which I never made..

Cut pasting the data given by my father to me... Who recently made that trip..  While I'm talking about the markets of Colombo...

A dude calls me by patting on my back...

When I turn ..

He asks me something .. that was a 'Second Opinion' thingy to him... and to 6 other people with him who were discussing it.


But for me was a real 'OnTheEdgeOfTheCliff-SayItRight-Or-RottInHell' question....

He asked me "Hey, How do you pronounce it? 'Addy-ddaas' or  'Aadi-Daas' (ADIDAS) ?

.....


All 6 staring at me, 3 with mouth wide open..

A sweat drop just passes through the back of the ear whispering "I cant see this... I'm outta here"

*Silence awaiting my reply*

and I mutter softly "Addy-ddaas?"... "Uh.. Addy-ddaas! :-|"(Faking confidence)

4 outta the 6 pack agreed ... and Bliss pumped through my Veins...!

.....

The mystery/charade behind me [Having a Literal Panic Attack/ Nervous Breakdown/ Pissing my pants], when it comes to pronounciation brain teasers, goes way back..!

Initially when I joined the school in 4th grade... I came from a lower middle class family.. who was not acquainted with the way things go around in a school like this one...

About the drill that goes around here ..

It was a totally different crowd for me... A bit more intellectual .. a bit more egoistic.. a bit more of everything that stereotype's a Student, on a whole.. 

BUT me being gregarious.. I would want to be a part of any discussion, that was on.

During which i would pronounce some names, in a way that, It would all be over for me.. That would make my fellowites take an oath to mock me for eternity..

For e.g.

'Shawn Paul' .. becomes 'Seen Paul' (SEAN PAUL),

and

'Thierry Hon-ry' becomes 'Theory Hen-riee' (THIERRY HENRY)

(These two just come straight to my mind) 

Both pronounciations literally spelt considering their spellings ...!

...

Back then.. Sean Paul's Temperature was a new and a hot number ..

and Thierry Henry was in sparkling form playing for Arsenal, NOT Barcelona ....

Too bad i could'nt pronounce either of them .. L
...

Music, Cinema and football were the Base preferrential topics we discussed in school...

and All of 'em had tricky tongue teasers..!

Anyway.. I was the ONE, who could'nt pronounce THE Sean Paul...

So I wouldnt even dare attempt  Paul McCartney, Evanesence, or Bjork Gudmundsdottir(I did not make that up)

Then there was this Rock band named 'Styx'. I never knew how do i pronounce it..

'Sticks' Or 'Sty:ks'

Thats why 5 points to AC/DC for a simple sublime Band Name
...

I would literally pronounce the Black Eyed Peas female Vocals Fergie as ,
[FUR-JEE].. Yes ... I made her sound like a State Entrance exam..

and when I later learn, it wasnt 'Fur-Jee' but 'Fur-Gee' ...

Just coz, I was Used to say 'Furjee'...

'Furgee' would sound, weird and pathetic to me...

But with time .. Furgee started to sound Catchy .. n FurJee ... Kinky :-|

....

Speaking of Fergie...

It would always puzzle me how to Pronounce Manchester United Manager’s name that was 'Sir Alex Ferguson'

Was it 'Alex Fur(JOO)son or Alex Fur(GYU)son??

...

Then When I saw THE TIMES OF INDIA, An Authentic newspaper naming him as 'Fergie' ...

and,


Estaba en paz(spanish) .. :)

From Cinema ... The First name that comes to my mind.. that i could write but could never pronounce was ... Arnold Schwarzenegger ... 


Then there's Kim Basinger..pronounced as BAY-singer .. n not "Bass-Singer"


Cate Blanchett..pronounced as 'BLANCH-it' ... and Not "Blanket" or "BLANCH-ett"


Martin Scorsese ... as 'Score-SES-eeeee' .. Not anything that makes it sound like a Bladder disease.. 

….

Another dilemma I get to face is The Brand Names ...

It has always been a challenge

Its been quite a conundrum to me, as to how different does NIKE become.. If I pronounce it as 'Naik'(Honoring a marathi martyr) instead of 'Naai-Key'(The Rightly Claimed One)..

OR
LEVIS .. for 'Lae-Viss', and not 'Lee-Wise'(As the Swagger's pronounce it, when they get One of these)

....

The other day at the Airport...

I was on call with my Father... He asked me on the phone

-"Which hand bag have you taken with you?"

-"Jeen frann-sois(JEAN FRANCOIS) Papa" (Regardless of how it sounds.. I jst wanted him to know that I had this XYZ bag..! )

When i Hung Up

A voice came outta sumwer "zhawn Fran-swaw "

I looked around...

It was the guy sitting beside me in the Boarding Area..

I gave him a Pale look..

Asshole repeated himself .. "Its not the way you said .. It is Zhawn franswaw"

It really pissed me .. that jst coz that OCD basterd had nuthin to do... so he had ears on me..!
....

Now ... One can mock somebody over this as much as they are unaccountable for ...
But noone gets this .. that this practise is soo Incorrigible

bcoz all of these names I pronounce incorrectly are PROPER NOUNS

People pronounce 'proper nouns' in many different ways...

Typically, there is one correct or accepted way of pronouncing the word...

However.. sometimes, there is a division about it.

Often, too, people pronounce words differently based on their dialect and their home area.

For example ...

=>

MTV VJ and RJ Jose Covaco ... pronounces his name 'Hoezaay' coz its a Mexican name.. and its pronounced there that way...

but generally who ever has their name Jose in India pronounce it as Joe-cee...

That’s Mexican Dialect.

Mexicans also pronounce 'Angel' as 'An-ghael'

=>

Then.. Richard is pronounced as 'Rich-urd' all over the world ... whereas the Russians pronounce it as 'Rikard' (Source:- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

=>

There's a friend of mine .. on twitter who stays in Louisville, Kentucky

He also says ... that there many people, who pronounce Louisville as 'Loo-wee-ville' ,

While others pronounce it as 'Loo-uh-vul' .

=>

Then there was a reference in 'TLC- Travel n Living Channel' bout a place in Richmond, VA, where there's this Powhite Parkway.

I noticed some people pronounce Powhite as 'po-white'

while others as 'Pow-hite' more like 'Pow-height'

Now these are people of the same community and vicinity.

.....

There a lotta other references .. whose pronounciations .. differ unanimously ... differing as per the Area..(Where, Area ranges from a Small Community to a Country)

Like Porsche ...

=>

Porsche is pronounced as 'Por-schhh' in India and many places ..

but German's pronounce it as 'Porsch-aaa'

=>

CHAMPAGNE in France is literally pronounced as 'Chamm-Paag-ney'.

....

Above All ...The Word Pronounciation is pronounced different in different countries ... Some places its .. 'Pruh-nun-cia-shun' and otherwise 'Pro-Noun-Cia-Tion [Not That 'Pronounciation' is a proper noun... It was just a Conclusive gesture for the post]
.....

On that note... I'd like to express this heartfelt regret that I have... for not making up the point of A Proper Noun.. back then..

It Could've saved me a lotta .. I donno .....'Something' (For The Lack Of A Better Word) :D ..