Foreign Pronunciation of Munchen

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Loyal

Loyal

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This might be a one and done topic question, but it's bugging me!
A few years ago I took German at university., although I don't remember that much about the language, which is a shame. BUT the pronunciation of Munich has never been explained to me where I understand it In German with the umlaut ("u" with two dots over the "u").
The English speaking world, along with Germans pronouncing it in English way as Munich (Mewnick). In German it's spelled as Munchen and pronounced like Mewnken. WHY?!?!
It's been explained to me that Germans can pronounce a town's name in anyway that they want, which I understand. But why pronounce it differently in one language and not enforce the actual spelling and pronunciation in German (Deutschland) in English as well? Welp, they do it with more than one geographical name!

One way that makes sense to me comes from an exchange daughter from South Korea. Her name is spelled something like Seon Young and I could never get the pronunciation correct, which frustrated us both. After a while she informed us that her English name was now "Kylie." lol. So because stupid Americans couldn't pronounce her actual name and was tired of hearing her American Dad butcher it, she changed it to a different English name. Could that be the reason for "Munich"?
 
It's not just Munich, though. Moscow, Warsaw, Lisbon, Rome... that's just off the top of my head.

And we don't pronounce Paris properly...
 
Londoner said:
And we don't pronounce Paris properly...
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Korean spelling of Hangeul that will translate to annunciation of their characters. Doesn’t appear the English alphabet will translate to the sounds similar to the Korean characters. Supposed to be an easy language to learn.
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French doesn’t make sense. The word Oiseaux is French for birds. Every letter is pronounced differently than spelled. Oiseaux=Wäzō

@Merlin if you’re using a phone hold down the letter to get a different letter format outside of English like ümlaut
 
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Londoner said:
It's not just Munich, though. Moscow, Warsaw, Lisbon, Rome... that's just off the top of my head.

And we don't pronounce Paris properly...
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My point would be if the French also pronounced Paris like English speakers do instead of the proper pronunciation in French?
 
So the entire world should change to American pronunciation to make life easier?

Nah.
 
Londoner said:
So the entire world should change to American pronunciation to make life easier?

Nah.
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I NEVER SAID THAT. Pronounce nouns like they are in the home country, for consistency,
 
Loyal said:
But the English need to get with the American program....
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You jest, but the number of young people here who use American terms is depressing. It's all down to films, television, social media, etc, but American English is becoming increasingly widespread on this side of the pond.
 
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German is a fun language that is very similar to ours at first glance. Most of the words they have are either similar to ours entirely or similar enough that you can guess what they are (for example, “augen” = eyes). Where it gets complicated is the various ways to say “the” in German, for various reasons (from gendered to practicality).

As a note, I took three years of German in middle school, and two of my closest online friends are German.
 
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Memento said:
German is a fun language that is very similar to ours at first glance. Most of the words they have are either similar to ours entirely or similar enough that you can guess what they are (for example, “augen” = eyes). Where it gets complicated is the various ways to say “the” in German, for various reasons (from gendered to practicality).

As a note, I took three years of German in middle school, and two of my closest online friends are German.
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Dead on Mems - My German's not great, maybe 7th grade level - but to your point:
German has 3 genders and 4 cases, which means between "a" and "the" there can be 48 different modifiers for nouns, including singular and plural. Germans basically learn it as kids from hearing it, and not from learning the grammar. Just an opinion. And then you have basically the same deal with this, that, these and those.

I also learned Dutch when I lived there in the 70's - much, much easier, as they use "a" and "the", just like us.
The grammar, as in word placement and the split verbs in past tenses, is basically identical to German.
You can see the migration, linguistically speaking, of the language as it traveled from Germany to England.

Boring is my middle name.:laugh4:
 
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Perhaps not needed, but perfectly acceptable for emphasis, I'm afraid.:bullseye:
 
VegasRam said:
And just a heads up all - I have just designated @Memento and myself the official ROD Grammar Nazis, so be careful.

We're watching, and we'll bust your ass in a heartbeat.

@So Ram - you're exempt
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Honestly, grammar isn’t my best ability when it comes to writing. Character creation and interaction has been my strength for a very long time.
 
The real purpose of this thread is to be a nerd trap. Gotcha!
 
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