#anglicisation

[sigmas-split-hair]

why should i be judged because I’m clearly not a native english speaker when that was never my intention

[kemetic-dreams]

The name may have been an Anglicisation of the biblical Iscah (from the Hebrew: יִסְכָּה: yīskāh), the name of a daughter of Haran briefly mentioned in the Book of Genesis 11:29. ... Jessica (given name)

[blackswaneuroparedux]

That’s the beauty of it. That was the sweet revenge which English took on French: it not only anglicised it, it used the invasion to increase its own strength; it looted the looters, plundered those who had plundered, out of weakness brought forth strength. For ‘answer’ is not quite ‘respond’; now they have almost independent lives. ‘Liberty’ isn’t always ‘freedom’. Shades of meaning, representing shades of thought, were massively absorbed into our language and our imagination at that time.

- Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language    

[mirrorontheworld]

Le 3 avril, en pleine crise sanitaire, le Premier ministre, Édouard Philippe et la ministre de l'Enseignement Supérieur, Frédérique Vidal, décidaient que désormais une certification en langue anglaise serait obligatoire pour tous les candidats voulant passer une licence nationale professionnelle, un diplôme universitaire de technologie (DUT), un brevet de technicien supérieur (BTS).

Ainsi, les étudiants maîtrisant une langue étrangère autre que l’anglais sont discriminés par rapport à ceux qui maîtrisent l’anglais, voire uniquement l’anglais, car à ces derniers une certification en langue anglaise suffira pour remplir les conditions linguistiques d’obtention d’une licence professionnelle, tandis qu’aux premiers, faisant fi de leur connaissance d’une langue étrangère autre que l’anglais, on leur demandera tout de même d’obtenir une certification en langue anglaise pour remplir les conditions linguistiques d’obtention d’une licence professionnelle.

Ce deux poids deux mesures est discriminatoire au regard de l’article 225-1 du code pénal qui stipule que :

« Constitue une discrimination toute distinction opérée entre les personnes physiques sur le fondement  (...) de leur capacité à s'exprimer dans une langue autre que le français ».

[indizombie]

During the first world war, parts of America grew hysterically anti-German. Some Germans were spat at in the street. The teaching of their language was banned in schools. Sauerkraut was renamed “liberty cabbage”. German books were burned, dachshunds kicked and German-Americans forced to buy war bonds to prove their patriotism. When New Ulm, a predominantly German town in Minnesota, refused to let its young men join the draft, the National Guard was sent in. After the war, German-Americans hunkered down. Many stopped speaking German and anglicised their names.

‘The silent minority’, The Economist ​

[wuh2k]

Weird Irish Names People Still Use

Boys

Fionn (fee-un) Caoimhín (kiv-een) Donocha (dun-ik-ah) Aodh (ay) Tadgh (tai-gh) Turlough (tur-luch)

Girls

Finnoula (fin-oo-la) Siobhán (shiv-awn) Sinéad (shin-ayd) Caoimhe (kee-va) OR (kwee-va) Blaithnaid (blaw-nid) Brónah (bro-na) Eilish (ay-lish) Aoife (ee-fa) Saoirse (seer-sha)

Eithne (et-na)

Irish Names you Never Knew were Irish (And how they’re really spelled)

Boys

Eoin / Owen - Eoghan (ow-in) Shawn / Shaun - Seán (shawn) Rory - Ruairí / Ruairdhí (rurr-ee) Patrick - Padraig (paw-rik / pawd-rig) Kieran - Ciarán (keer-awn) Dermot - Diarmuid (deer-mid) Gareth - Gearoid (ga-row-d)

Girls

Sheila - Síle (shee-la) Caitlin - Caitlín (kot-leen) Maeve - Maebh (mayv) Bridget - Bríd (breedge)

Emer - Eimear (ee-mur)

Irish Versions of Non-Irish Names

Mary - Maire (moy-rah) / Marie (ma-ree / mah-ree) Anne - Áine (aw-nya) Margaret - Mairéad (mor-ayd)

George - Seoirse (shor-shi) Michael - Míchael (mee-hawl) Peter - Peadar (pad-er)

[solongasitswords]

Mayor Bloomberg, in the wake of Hurricane Irene, addressed the people of New York in somewhat clumsy and stumbling Spanish, for which he was widely criticized. However, the opinion piece above defends his valiant attempt at engaging with the language. I've always been curious about this issue, and would be keen to hear people's opinions on it -- what do you prefer: that a non-native speaker attempt a little of your language, possibly with little accuracy and flair (as with Mr Bloomberg, in the link above), or not to bother at all, and revert to English as a lingua franca? I have always tried to give it a go myself, though I'm often terrified that it's more insulting for someone to hear my garbled attempts at Spanish or French than for me to default to English!

I find this the case particularly with names -- is it more polite to Anglicise someone's name, or attempt a native pronunciation, as with - for example - Davide or Toni, or the surname Diaz? Is it more polite to attempt the vowel and consonant sounds that differ slightly from the English equivalents of these names, or to make a hobson-jobson of it? Should one say 'dee-az' (as many of my peers did, when we shared a teacher with this name), or 'dee-ath', as I believe the native Spanish tongue would pronounce it? I imagine this would differe with different names, to be honest -- I had a colleague who insisted on pronouncing the name Juan as 'joo-an', rather than 'huan' (to try and rudimentarily demonstrate pronunciation!). I would say that most English speakers would be familiar with this particular name, so to pronounce it otherwise is willful disregard, but maybe I'm just too judgemental?! :)

[chim--chim--cheree]

I typed "Anglicisation," into Word, and it autocorrected it to "Anglicization."

Can you feel the irony burning through the computer screen? Can you feel it?