Application of linguistic theories to critically analyze our stereotypical views on the use of English

Abstract

On the Phase 3 part of this course, I have critically analyzed our stereotypical views on the pronunciation of names and supported my claim that regardless of dialect and language we all should try our best to pronounce each others names correctly as names are the bearer of our identities. The cover letter portrays a personal experience of mine which have driven me to choose the aforementioned claim to write the essay on. The essay is built upon some personal experiences and both outside and inside-course references were used as evidences. Moreover, there is the argument that, dialect is a natural and personal trait of an individual which makes it difficult to pronounce names especially from a different language. However, I believe that names are interwoven deeply into our character and thus, regardless of difficulty should be correctly pronounced. In other words, the essay is constructed around my claim and was reinforced with proper evidences refuting the arguments.

Cover Letter

I asked a classmate of mine this semester her name. Firstly, looking at her I could say that the probability of her being from my country Bangladesh was very high, or at least from India. I know, it is a bad practice and some cases offensive to have stereotypical assumption of someone’s ethnicity, however, we all do this assumption, we might not say it out loud, but in our mind go through it. It does not make us a bad person, it is just humans do naturally, we understand things by comparing to the things we know. I know how a TV looks like, so I might misjudge a monitor as a TV or vice versa. My point is, every time we are introduced to something new, we try to create strings from the things we know and attach it with the new thing to get an idea. We compare good with evil, light with darkness or a chicken with a duck. If I had never seen a chicken I might have called a turkey a chicken. Getting off topic here.

Coming to the main topic, upon asking her name she replied, “Jannatul”. I was completely thrown off by how she pronounced it. “Jannatul” is a very common name in my country, but hearing it form her, my thought about her being from my country was thrown out of the window. Nonetheless, I asked her where she was from, and she said Bangladesh, and my thought that she is from my country came back crawling in from the window it was thrown out from, which is a very unique experience. Then I asked if her name is “Jannatul”, this time with the pronunciation in Bengali. She replied yes. “Jannatul” is an Arabic word got adopted by our language and means “garden of paradise”, but the pronunciation she first used did not sound anything like the one “Jannatul” I know. Talking with her more, I realized she changed the pronunciation to a more English like so people could pronounce it properly, and, as matter of fact, she thought I was from a different country and will not be able to pronounce her name properly, thus, she made it easy for me.

This particular incident got me thinking, if pronunciation matters or not when calling someone’s name. Moreover, one of the primary sources provided for the “Researched Exploratory Essay”, was a popular YouTube video where a classroom teacher was mispronouncing the names when calling rolls. Two & two made four, and I thought of using the public source to write the following essay to further research my thought on the significance of pronouncing names.

In German “W” is Pronounced “V”, it’s Wladimir Not Wladimir.

 “Shawraz”, my name looks hard to spell but if you break it down it is easy, “Shaw” and “Raz”. Simple pronunciation but “a” in “Raz” can be pronounced like “a”s in “cat” or a “car” (it’s “car”), moreover, the “z” here is also mispronounced, not because it is written incorrectly but rather the letter “z” does not bring the correct consonant from my language which has a different pronunciation. Since it is near impossible to write proper pronunciation I will give my name’s original form, স্বরাজ. The meaning of the name in Bengali is quite dramatic, self-governed, autonomy or freedom. However, I have no idea what meaning it bears when it is pronounced with “z” in English. It might be because my name bears the meaning of freedom, I have always been concerned with how my name was pronounced or written. In other words, I wanted my name to be free of the boundary of dialects, I wanted it to be pronounced how it was supposed to be pronounced. Unfortunately, regardless of my concerns, most of the time I just cope with the mispronunciations.

“Substitute Teacher – Key & Peele” is a sketch made by Keegen-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, well know sketch comedy artists in YouTube, it was uploaded on the channel Comedy Central. In the sketch they portrayed the mispronunciation of names in classroom. This makes the video highly relatable as in our educational life, we all have faced the teachers who could not pronounce our names correctly. In the video, the substitute teacher, played by Keegen-Michael Key, mispronounces the name of the students when calling the rolls due to his different dialect. However, teaching in the inner-city area before, and for comedic purpose, he does not correct himself even when the students say the names are pronounced in a different way. On the other hand, he gets angrier as the students try to correct him. Moreover, regardless of his anger, the students still try to correct the teacher, which implies that in terms of the pronunciation of our names, we intend to keep it the same as in the language and dialect of its origin. Names bear the identity of the people, as humans we find it deeply rooted to our character. Consequently, we try to keep the pronunciation of our names constant. In this paper, I would like to establish that, regardless of language and dialect, we want our names to be pronounced correctly as per to its origin dialect. (requires more work).

Name bears high significance in our civilization. According to an American Author, H. Edward Deluzain, “names are a part of every culture and that they are of enormous importance both to the people who receive names and to the societies that given them” (Deluzain, 1). Usually within days after birth a child receive its name. That name is influenced by the language, culture, gender and religion, and often carries these backgrounds. Which means by hearing a name we can usually say where that person is from, or sometimes what his religion is or which language he can speak. For example, “Mohammad”, hearing this name, we can be almost certain that the person follows Islam. On the other hand, “Rodriguez” is often the name of the person who can speak Spanish. However, straight on assuming the person’s character and ethnicity solely based on the name can be offensive, but our cultures and the languages are developed in such a way that we unconsciously assume a person’s character based on the name. In addition, when a child is named, it is to give the child the address to build his or her character. As a former professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Cornell university (joined in 1980), wrote in his article, “The Problems of Personal Names as a Universal Element in Culture”, “The name is a stamp that parents place on an unformed ego” (Feldman, 246). In his article Feldman provided evidences which showed that in many cases the development of one’s ego starts with their name. Therefore, it can be said that names bear great significance in the identification of an individual.

Furthermore, giving myself as an example, I have always found my name to be unique. In Bangladesh, in every class I have been to there was not another “Shawraz”, moreover, almost all the people I have asked thus far do not know a second “Shawraz”. On the other hand, my first name, “Sadman” is very common in my country and even I myself have few friends of the same name. As “Shawraz” was the unique part of my full name, I have always identified myself as such, because, I believe, the name being unique, gave me the mental satisfaction of being unique as person, different than everyone else. However, I have found people mispronouncing it as “Shiraz” which is not only common but has a completely different meaning in my language which is “sweet”. A simple deviation of spelling or pronunciation changes the meaning of the word completely. Especially, in different languages or in different dialects sometimes same words have different meaning, and in some unfortunate cases, slight mispronunciation can make one’s name a laughing factor. We all grow up with our names, attach memories to it, give meaning to it, and build our identity surrounding it. Me having a unique name, or someone having a name of a renowned figure in the past, these factors have significant impact on the development of our character. For example, someone’s childhood can be ruined if their names rhyme with something bad or laughable, becoming a tool for the bullies or a laughing factor among friends. Not only to avoid such circumstances but also to stay to true to our identities, we find ourselves defending the pronunciation of our names.

However, we can argue that, people from different culture, language and dialect will be unable to pronounce the name correctly as syllables vary from language to language and in some cases can be straight out absent in another language. These make it harder for us to pronounce names derived from different languages and dialect. Since dialect is natural and not a choice, it is difficult for us to correct the pronunciation. As evidence given by a professor and sociolinguist of North Carolina State University, Walt Wolfram, “Variation in speech (dialects) is at the core of social and historical identity, interwoven into the fabric of cultural differences.” (Wolfram, 2). In his article “Everyone Has an Accent”, Wolfram confirms the fact that diversity in language is a scientific fact and is built in the core of every human beings, which differs from one person to another, thus, it is only natural for a Scottish person to find spelling a Chinese name difficult. Furthermore, spelling names with different letters of a different language can also change the pronunciation of the name. For example, “Juan” in Spanish language is pronounced “Huan” but if one follows, English pronunciation it is as it is, “Juan”. As Spanish and English has similar alphabets, pronunciation gets completely changed. In case of Chinese names to write in English, it’s become a highly complex arrangement of words mispronounced by almost everyone. As an example, try pronouncing “Zhōngguó”. A native English speaker will never find the correct pronunciation unless someone gives it. Moreover, I find it difficult to pronounce the names of my classmates as they find mine. The limitation of alphabets in languages will always be a difficult obstacle in pronouncing the names correctly but I believe, regardless of its difficulty, it is necessary to try our best to pronounce each other’s names correctly, as mispronunciation can change the meaning of the name or can be offensive as the name can bear significance in defining someone’s character. Moreover, it also bears the sign of respect towards each other’s culture, language and dialect.  Therefore, no matter how it is written in a different language, we all should show the politeness and effort to correctly pronounce each other’s names.

In conclusion, the diversity of our cultures makes it difficult for us to pronounce each other’s names correctly, however, as names bear high significance with our identities, it is customary to try to pronounce them correctly, regardless of dialect or language. We are called by our names by our family, our friends and the people in our society, no one writes it on a paper and goes around looking for us, unless it is at an airport and you are rich enough for someone to send someone else to receive you there with your name written on a board. Our spoken first and written later. And the spoken name is what we are identified by. A name can be written in many different languages with different alphabets, however, it should only be spoken with its correct dialect and pronunciation.

References

1. It’s weird to pronounce white names as Black, but not Black names as white. A parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw (PRIMARY Public Source)
2. Deluzain, H. Edward. “Names and Personal Identity.” Behind the Name – the Etymology and History of First Names, www.behindthename.com/articles/3.
3. Feldman, Harold. “The Problem of Personal Names as a Universal Element in Culture.” American Imago, vol. 16, no. 3, 1959, pp. 237–250. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26301715.
4. Wolfram W. (2000, September 1). “Everyone Has An Accent”. Retrieved from https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2000/everyone-has-an-accent