4 ms·
'bother' me? No, not at all, the sounds are close enough I get the meaning, mostly from context. I am not sure why there should be an emotional factor here, as
by sillyquiet 6y ago
'bother' me? No, not at all, the sounds are close enough I get the meaning, mostly from context.
I am not sure why there should be an emotional factor here, as expecting everybody to conform to some pronunciation ideal they have no experience with is arrogant, to say the least.
- titzer 6y agoWell you claimed that Americans are pronouncing it "perfectly correctly," and Germans might disagree. It's a German word which has been Americanized. The company mostly doesn't care, but there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language. Insisting you are correct mispronouncing a foreign word because the letters look a certain way is just hubris.
- simondw 6y ago> there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language But see, that's the point. We're not speaking German when we use a borrowed word in English. It's no longer a purely German word, despite its origins, just as "xylophone" isn't a mispronounced Greek word, nor "Handy" a misused and miscapitalized English word. That's not hubris, it's just descriptivism.
- ric2b 6y agoIt's not just a word, it's a name. Names have a single correct pronunciation, they're not supposed to be translated.
- sillyquiet 6y agoAmericans are pronouncing the English word Volkswagen perfectly correctly yes. BECAUSE THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH
- chki 6y agoI would follow your logic if the english pronunciation of the word Volkswagen was actually phonetically consistent. But while "Volks" is pronounced in an english way, isn't the word "wagen" pronounced in a weird German way? "Wagen" on its own would probably be pronounced like way-gen, if my english intuition is not fooling me. Instead it is pronounced like wuh-gen. I don't really care about this either way but if you are bothered by something the weird mixture is.. a bit annoying.
- ric2b 6y agoIt's not just a word, it's a name. Names have a single correct pronunciation, they're not supposed to be translated.
- CRConrad 6y agoEither... A) It's not an English word, it's a name. A German name. or B) You're misspelling it. The English (at least the American) word you're looking for is "Volkswagon".