Thanks to some friendly advice from LanguageHat, and seeing competing pronunciations flying around in the comments of the previous pronunciation post, especially for that pesky Goethe, I decided to go to the library and to do a little more Internet research to try to get some definitive pronunciations for these names, specifically printed references where available.
At the library I took a look at Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature (EoL) – pronunciations aside, a very cool reference book – which was very helpful in giving me pronunciations for most of the names on our list. The problem is that the pronunciations are given using symbols that are not easily expressed in HTML, and thus are impossible to convey on this blog. Another problem is that the book was published in 1995, and thus leaves out some of the contemporary authors on this list.
However, with some further digging online, I was able to find some sources, including Merriam-Webster Online (M-W), which uses simplified, Internet friendly notation. You can refer to the M-W pronunciation guide for help if you need it. I also looked at the online version of the The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition (AH), whose pronunciations I’ve only linked to rather than copied because it uses images to convey pronunciation symbols, and I can’t easily replicate them here on the blog. Best of all, these two sources include audio pronunciations, as well. Very helpful. Finally I also looked at Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names (PD), some names from which somebody has posted here.
When none of those sufficed I used references from newspaper and magazine articles, hoping that their writers did the research and found out the correct pronunciations, ideally from the authors themselves.
- J.M. Coetzee – kut-’sE, -’si& (audio via M-W)
- Paul Theroux – both PD and EoL have it as thuh-ROO
- Henry David Thoreau – th&-’rO, tho-; ‘thor-(“)O, ‘th&r-(“)O (audio via M-W, via AH). The “Pronouncing Thoreau” sidebar on this NPR story goes into some further detail.
- John Le Carre – l&-kä-’rA (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Dan Chaon – I’m going to stick with my friend Edan’s pronunciation – “Shawn” – since she had him as a teacher.
- Pulitzer – ‘PULL it sir’ (see #19 in the Pulitzer FAQ, audio via M-W and via AH, which also offers the “PEW” pronunciation as an alternative.)
- Donald Barthelme – There seems to be some disagreement on this one. AH has it with a “th” sound – see pronunciation and audio – while the EoL has it with a hard “t” sound. Not sure which is right.
- Michael Chabon – “Pronounced, as he says, ‘Shea as in Stadium, Bon as in Jovi,’” according to this profile, though other news sources pronounce the last syllable ranging from “bun” to “bawn” to “bin“
- Thomas Pynchon – ‘pin-ch&n (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Rainer Maria Rilke – ‘rI-n&r Maria ‘ril-k&, -kE (audio via M-W, via AH. AH does not offer the “long e” at the end as an alternative pronunciation, nor does EoL.)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Unfortunately not much of a definitive answer here. M-W prefers saying it with more of an “r” sound ‘g&(r)-t& (audio), but offers ‘g[oe]-t& as an alternative. AH prefers the latter, note the the subtly different audio. EoL has both of those but it calls the “r” sound “Anglicized.” It also has a “long a” sound in the first syllable listed as Anglicized.
- Ngugi wa Thiong’o – His first name is pronounced “Googy,” according to UC Irvine, where he teaches, while his last name is presumably pronounced phonetically.
- Eoin Colfer – The Seattle PI and Guardian both say the first name is pronounced “Owen.” The last name is phonetic.
- Seamus Heaney – ’shA-m&s ‘hE-nE (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Jorge Luis Borges – ‘bor-”hAs (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Vladimir Nabokov – n&-’bo-k&f (audio via M-W, via AH. Both AH and EoL offer alternative pronunciations with a stress on the first syllable.)
- P.G. Wodehouse – ‘wud-”haus (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Chuck Palahniuk – Lots of sources, including USA Today, say “Paula-nik.”
- Michel Houellebecq – LA Weekly and many other sources say “Wellbeck.”
- Jeffrey Eugenides – “yu-GIN-e-dees” according to the Houston Chronicle.
- Jack Kerouac – ‘ker-&-”wak (audio via M-W, via AH)
- Colm Toibin – most sources, like the SF Chron have it as “toe-bean,” but the Boston Globe says “Column to-BEAN.”
Bonus Links:
- The BBC Pronunciation Blog.
- Voice of America’s guide to pronouncing challenging names in the news, and a Washington Post story about that guide.
- The really cool kids, however, prefer these pronunciations.
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at 4:13 pm on August 28, 2006
Hate to be pedantic ( well, actually, I don't) but it's Houellebecq. It's because of that e that it's pronounced well…, otherwise it would be hool…
at 5:13 pm on August 28, 2006
After all that trouble, I'm felled by a lousy spelling error… Thanks for pointing it out. I've fixed it.
at 8:38 pm on March 6, 2007
How about Dai Sijie? First name's pretty obvious, but I can't figure out the last.
at 9:51 am on July 3, 2007
And Chinua Achebe?
at 3:59 pm on September 17, 2007
Just a quick correction on Ngugi wa Thiong'o, in case anyone is trying to use this page as a resource.
nGOOgi wa te ONG go. There's actually an audio version available here:
http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/worldhistory/unit_glossary_25.html
at 3:43 pm on October 24, 2007
Is it Edward AL-bee or ALL-bee?
at 5:14 pm on October 30, 2007
hi. i'm a bit embarrassed to ask this coz i'm not as intellectual as all the other bloggers posting comments on your page but my friend and i have been debating on how to properly pronounce the name Johann if given for a guy's name. one says it with a yo-han and the other says it with a jo-han. which is the correct one?
at 9:56 am on January 5, 2008
I wouldn't bet on Anonymous ever coming back to see this reply after two months, but Johann in German is pronounced "yo-han."
at 1:06 am on January 6, 2008
Andre Dubus always tripped me up when I first became a fan. Duh-byoose.
at 3:40 pm on January 8, 2008
One of my thesis advisors at UCLA once told me as a child Donald Barthelme spent the night at his house. He couldn't remember the circumstances or tell me how his father had known DB, but he did remember that his name was definitely pronounced "BAR-tuhl-mee" with a hard T. This particular professor is not hard of memory, well under the age of 50, and exercises regularly.
at 4:03 am on April 15, 2008
I remember embarrassing myself once when I pronounced Albert Camus (Kam-oo) as Albert Kam-ah-s, infront of a group of philosophy buffs. Oh how my face turned red when I found out…
at 5:59 pm on April 18, 2008
Does anyone know how to pronounce Paule Marshall's name? She was born Valenza Pauline Burke. I'm not sure if Paule is short for Pauline and should be Paul-lay, simply Paul. Any ideas?
at 11:23 am on June 22, 2008
The BBC Pronunciation Blog has been moved to this page – http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/how_to_say/
It's very helpful! I know how to pronounce Tsvangirai now.
at 7:20 pm on July 12, 2008
Did the late Americanized intellectual historian George Mosse pronounce his name MOSS or the Germanic MOSS-UH? (And the first name?)
I went to a slightly snobby undergrad university and although most people gave Walter Benjamin's name an English first name pronunciation but did the vaguely Germanic Ben-yuh-meen for the last. I am returning to grad school and wondering what the current thing is?
Tom humaniores@gmail.com (let me know at that address also if you don't mind — I tend to forget where I post things)
at 4:35 am on July 16, 2008
Anyone know how to pronounce Des Esseintes, the name of the main character in 'Against Nature' or 'Against the Grain' by Huysmans?
at 9:59 am on July 16, 2008
I don't know the Huysmans work but a standard French pronunciation would be close to dez-es-sent or des-es-sant. There are exceptions but usually you do pronounce the S before a vowel (unlike the way we say Des Moines, Iowa.)
Now, how do you pronounce Huysman?
By the way, I finally asked (by e-mail) the chairman of the history department where Mosse last worked before his death and he said Mosse used an Americanized "Mossy".amkunstwerk
at 2:20 pm on August 1, 2008
I may be repeating others, but here are my contributions:
Huysmans is apparently "H'WEES'maan." At least I somehow feel comfortable saying it that way.
Cioran is TCHAW-rahn (according to the Times obit), but I will never feel comfortable pronouncing his name.
Walser is Valser, and I pronounce his book "Jakob von Gunten" as "YAH-cub von GOO-tin" — please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong because this is my favorite novel!
I picked up "Ben-ya-MEAN" as an underground but still use the "W" in "Walter."
I always pronounce Bataille "Buh-TIE" and Blanchot "BLAN-show," hopefully correctly.
I hear Musil is M'EEOO-zil.
I've heard "ZAY-bald" for W.G.Sebald (from people who know German). Presumably I don't have to pronounce the "W" and "G" in anything other than my annoying Philly ACK-sent.
at 2:36 am on October 2, 2008
Pynchon puts the accent on the last syllable, see especially his voicework for The Simpsons.
at 10:55 pm on January 27, 2010
pronunciation for Louis de Bernières please?
~ Anita Revel
))
(pronounced Re-VELL to rhyme with bell)
at 1:34 pm on February 3, 2010
If we don’t mind diving into genre, China Mieville might be a good addition to the list? Wikipedia has a pronunciation in IPA, but I’m not sure what its source was.
at 11:28 am on February 8, 2010
[...] Hard-to-pronounce literary names; here are authors saying their own names; also, I’d been second-guessing how I say ’Coleridge’, and I’m glad to see that at least one other person justifies my pronunciation. [...]
at 11:51 am on April 7, 2010
How do you pronounce Albert Szent-Gyoergyi?
at 6:50 pm on April 16, 2010
[...] Things Like Other Things by bcs on April 16, 2010 Michael Schaub has linked to a BuzzFeed post that reproduces a page (48, it seems) from something called the Panorama Book Review (Was that a thing?), which shows how to pronounce a few difficult to parse literary names. Which reminded me of one of my favorite features over at The Millions: Hard to Pronounce Literary Names. [...]
at 8:03 am on May 25, 2010
[...] I’ve written a few examples below, but for an exhaustive list with links to audio clips, see this article from The [...]
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