WhyNot?

Name dictionary

Category: Computer
Responses: 9 (7 in support, 1 neutral, 1 in opposition)
Number of views: 1830
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If I had an online name dictionary where I can check pronunciation of names I come across. Perhaps it can be a community website where people can upload pronunciation of their own names.

dharma, Apr 02 2007

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Comments from other members:

Add your comment

Names and name pronunciation is very individual and variable. There is no general standard so the proposal seems impractical to me.

sand, Apr 02 2007

Multiple pronunciation should be allowed to be added to the name dictionary, so there is no need for standards.

dharma, Apr 03 2007

Normal pronunciations are determined by standard usage in a relatively large subsector of a culture whereas name pronunciation is frequently a matter of individual or individual family choice which makes the spectrum of almost impossibly wide to standardize. One of the factors of this difference, especially in a country like the USA which has a large number of people who have immigrated from countries that speak different languages, is that anglicized versions of foreign names undergo radical changes in pronunciation so that they differ to a large degree from the original and cannot be recorded in all their mutations in a way easily handled in a standard reference text.

sand, Apr 03 2007

In countries with large immigrant population such service is very useful since there are many names people never heard. It would be ridiculous to try to captures all pronunciations of a name but few of the most populars should serve the purpose.

dharma, Apr 04 2007

My last name gets mispronounced all the time, and there are no meaningful variations on how it should be pronounced. There may be differences in different pronunciations, conceivably, possibly, theoretically but to disagree to this idea based on that possibility is to be unable to think quantitatively. I don't see how anyone would be worse off than they are now.

cyi, Apr 06 2007

I am not sure, but is this related to the soundex codes?

wizard1961, Apr 08 2007

The dictionary could include the names of specific people (famous actors, athletes, historic figures, etc.) and place names. I would find this quite handy.

Dwane Anderson, Apr 21 2007

This dictionary should start with the low-hanging fruit: the names of famous foreigners, such as Cavafy and Seurat. (In a 2002 book, Joseph Epstein mentioned that he had until recently mispronounced the first and an acquaintance mispronounced the second.) Many persons would like to check out their proper pronunciation--and fortunately there is agreement on this matter, unlike the case with ordinary names, where one branch of a family may pronounce it one way and another branch another.

Later, this dictionary could incorporate ordinary names on which there is no disagreement on pronunciation, like Schuyler.

Eventually, it could list names where variants exist, giving both variants, which at least would be a bit of a help.

Roger Knights, Aug 08 2008

PS: The great thing about an online dictionary is that it could actually speak the comment audibly, as well as showing how it should be pronounced in the way that printed dictionaries do.

Roger Knights, Aug 08 2008