4 ms·
Language is primarily for communication, not correctness or history. We're not talking about a person's name here. What do you communicate when you say 'Budap
by abandonliberty 9y ago
Language is primarily for communication, not correctness or history. We're not talking about a person's name here.
What do you communicate when you say 'Budapesht' rather than 'Budapest' to a bunch of North Americans after your first visit there?
You're showing them their ease of comprehension is less important to you than pedantry or your desire to demonstrate correctness. Easily rude, likely pedantic, at worst pretentious.
Strive to speak in the language of your audience.
- curioussavage 9y agoThank you for explaining so clearly why I dislike people doing that. I feel the same way about correcting spelling mistakes too.
- rhn_mk1 9y agoExcept when you're not sure what the word is pronounced like. The more obscure word, the easier just to switch to the native pronounciation and hope that it's more comprehensible to the audience than the inevitably botched "correct" version. This may apply to English more than other languages - in some languages it's pretty easy to guess how to pronounce complicated words after seeing them in writing.