I have a fairly unusual given name (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and thus am used to people mispronouncing it. Though I usually correct the person, I’m not offended, really—and if you’re wondering now, the emphasis goes on the first syllable, which rhymes with pause, not pose. However, my experience has made me sensitive to this issue. I hate discovering that I’ve been saying someone’s name wrong. I always feel embarrassed, no matter who the person is, but especially so when it comes to names of authors I’ve read and/or whose work I admire.
So, when I discovered this handy (though unfortunately not exhaustive) list of tricky-to-pronounce author names today, I read it with alternating waves of dismay and rather smug relief. Apparently I’ve been mispronouncing Ayn Rand and Jonathan Lethem. Sigh.
(Thanks, Buzzfeed!)
What's new at TNQ?
Share the love!
Subscribe
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
Authors
Categories
Links
Every single film or television show I’ve seen wherein a character says the name “Nabokov” (which is more than you might imagine), they pronounce it wrong. Every. Single. One.
You’d think a film or a TV show about writers or writing would get that kind of detail right, but as picky as filmmakers are about visual details, they don’t seem to give half a damn about details of language.
The last name of Canadian writer Miriam Toews puzzled me, and even after looking up the correct pronunciation, I still thought of it “wrongly” and needed to keep correcting myself. (It is “tays”) So, when I was introduced to her at the Northrup Frye Festival in Moncton last year.. I just did not use her name, ha ha.