![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Pronunciation Please
May. 7th, 2009 02:21 pmWhen I was a wee sprog, I always heard Afghanistan pronounced with a short "a" sound: af-ga-ni-stan. Later, when Pakistan showed up onto my radar, I heard it pronounced the same way: pack-i-stan.
Now, in this enlightened day, we try to pronounce names (of people and countries) in a way that acknowledges their right to choose how their names are pronounced. So, we have President Obama pronouncing Pakistan as pah-ki-stahn. This makes perfect sense to me, and I appreciate that he is trying to be sensitive to the issue of pronunciation in a multicultural world.
Wherefore Afghanistan? Why would one correctly pronounce Pakistan, and then go back to the old Americanization of their neighbor? This is especially apparent in that (lately) you cannot hear one name without the other in close proximity. Journalists seem to be taking Obama's lead and pronouncing Pakistan correctly, while continuing to pronounce Afghanistan with a short "a". WTF?
(don't even get me started on eye-ran)
Now, in this enlightened day, we try to pronounce names (of people and countries) in a way that acknowledges their right to choose how their names are pronounced. So, we have President Obama pronouncing Pakistan as pah-ki-stahn. This makes perfect sense to me, and I appreciate that he is trying to be sensitive to the issue of pronunciation in a multicultural world.
Wherefore Afghanistan? Why would one correctly pronounce Pakistan, and then go back to the old Americanization of their neighbor? This is especially apparent in that (lately) you cannot hear one name without the other in close proximity. Journalists seem to be taking Obama's lead and pronouncing Pakistan correctly, while continuing to pronounce Afghanistan with a short "a". WTF?
(don't even get me started on eye-ran)
