How to read out correctly the names you see for the first time

[gxnn]

As the names of Chinese people are made up of each single Chinese character that has fixed pronunciation, it is only a combination of these when a name is given, so it is easy for other people to read out the name correctly without having to ask the owner of the name. Of course there are a few Chinese words (characters) that have more than one sound, and when it is used in a name, it has to be determined by the owner which sound is the correct one to avoid embarrassment.

As far as I know, the names in general in English are those like John, Sam, Michael that can be found in the Bible or other famous novels or stories, and there will not be any difficulty for other people to read them out.

But now there are many other names available in real life, like Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, etc, that can eventually be known and read by the public because they are important persons and there are people of the press to determine their right sound. But if it is an ordinary name found in paper and one is not sure how to pronouce it when faced with it, where could he find the help? Is there such a vocabulary for all those names with phonetic signs provided?

 

[NightL]

Sometimes rules and guidelines are just left behind. My real name is *&$( JHGD K)*(%Y$^$ 1234

 

[NightL]

Sometimes

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

That's the branch of language known as phonetics.

Generally each phoneme has a unique sound but dialect can cause certain examples to become homophonic.

Familiarity and practice will help.

Oh - and don't go thinking that the British press are an authority on  anything.

 

[NightL]

try https://www.howtopronounce.com/
but I admit I am totally out of my depth in this area

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And then there are these... https://forum.literotica.com/threads/how-many-characters.1575138/post-95841947

 

[fire_breeze]

As the names of Chinese people are made up of each single Chinese character that has fixed pronunciation, it is only a combination of these when a name is given, so it is easy for other people to read out the name correctly without having to ask the owner of the name. Of course there are a few Chinese words (characters) that have more than one sound, and when it is used in a name, it has to be determined by the owner which sound is the correct one to avoid embarrassment.

As far as I know, the names in general in English are those like John, Sam, Michael that can be found in the Bible or other famous novels or stories, and there will not be any difficulty for other people to read them out.

But now there are many other names available in real life, like Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, etc, that can eventually be known and read by the public because they are important persons and there are people of the press to determine their right sound. But if it is an ordinary name found in paper and one is not sure how to pronouce it when faced with it, where could he find the help? Is there such a vocabulary for all those names with phonetic signs provided?

As the possessor of an ethnic name that is consistently mispronounced (and misgendered), including its nickname, I have one very simple suggestion: ask them. Ask them to say their names or to break it down in syllables, repeat it after them, and combine it until you get the relieved and happy reaction from the individual. Also remember there are some sound combinations that you may not be able to pronounce.

Granted, this isn't always possible, so I would recommend either pronouncenames.com or howtopronounce.com. It's not always the best, as it does anglicise the pronunciation, but it's very solid. YouTube is also another avenue.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As the possessor of an ethnic name that is consistently mispronounced (and misgendered), including its nickname, I have one very simple suggestion: ask them. Ask them to say their names or to break it down in syllables, repeat it after them, and combine it until you get the relieved and happy reaction from the individual. Also remember there are some sound combinations that you may not be able to pronounce.

This is the ONLY reliable way.

English has a lot of weird cases where the pronunciation of the word doesn't follow usual rules. For example, the surname "Featherstone" is pronounced almost like it's spelled, "feather-stun", but "Featherstonehaugh" is usually pronounced "fan-shaw". Names like "Cholmondeley" ("chum-ley") and "Colquhoun" ("ka-hoon") are also impossible to figure out just from the spelling.

Even if you could memorise all those cases, you'd still need to ask sometimes, because there are cases where a single spelling can have more than one pronunciation. For example:

"Gillian" might either have a hard "G" as in "gill", or a soft "G" as in "Jill".

"Sean" might be pronounced either "Shane" or "Shon", but is very unlikely to rhyme with "bean".

Names like "Jesus" and "Julio" might be pronounced with the usual English "J" sound, or with the Spanish "jota" depending on the person's origins.

This often happens when English is absorbing names from other languages and struggling to fit them into familiar sounds and alphabets, but it can also happen with names that have been in English a very long time, where the pronunciation shifts but the spelling doesn't. I think there are other mechanisms too, but you'd have to ask a linguist for more.

 

[munch2much]

There is no simple way unfortunately.
English has acquired both words and names from many other countries.

Sometimes we say words the way they are said in their original language. But not always.