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I always assumed that, for proper names, pronunciation was up to the owner. You can try to follow the rules for pronunciation, but that's often in conflict with how the owners say it. Many American immigrants changed their names when they arrived, usually for easier pronunciation and spelling ... they wanted to be anglicized.
RobertB said
gingham uniquely contains the consonant NG (that starts the 2nd syllable).Or is that really unique?
A quick check with three different dictionary sites confirms what I have believed; NG ends the first syllable. It doesn't start the second syllable. That really is not unique. (one of a kind)
Heimhenge said ... they wanted to be anglicized.
See, the strange thing is sometimes they lose the sound of their origin, yet still are not anglicized. An anglicized Hernandez should've sounded like Hernan-dase. But it never does. People always say Hernan-dares.
So that sound for ez does exist in English, such as in scarce. Still, why favor that sound over the more obvious anglicized route to Hernan-dase instead?
The 2nd syllable in Kasich I think doesn't even exist in any unmodified English word.
I may be risking being corrected due to my Texas accent. (I was extremely surprised to find that nobody pronounced "war" like me and my friends.) But around here nobody puts an "R" in the last syllable of Hernandez, neither do they pronounce the last syllable "dase" like you suggested. I pronounce the last syllable to sound like fez, Pez, or says. This is also the way people who own that name pronounce it.
About gingham: Your pronunciation link only showed the difference in the pronunciation. If you will check out syllable division, you will find that in gingham "ng" ends the first syllable. It is not part of the second syllable. It does sound different from mango and finger because they are different words whose second syllable does begin with the "G". They can not be compared.
I don't understand a couple things. But there are couple elements in there that appear to reinforce what I set out at top:
Dick said I pronounce the last syllable to sound like fez, Pez, or says.
So: do fez, pez, says exist as part of any unmodified traditional English words? Are they anglicized sounds? (I think not.)
Dick said It does sound different from mango and finger because they are different words whose second syllable does begin with the "G". They can not be compared.
Now that's not exactly definition of unique, but a long way into that ballpark- something that shares features of a kind, yet stands out from the rest of that kind. That's what gingham is. Are there any other English words that sound like it? (That's not a rhetorical question.)
Emmet, my quick check shows the g in linger to be in the second syllable, but singer and ringer both have the g in the first syllable.
Robert, when I said how I pronounce Hernandez I was not commenting on Anglicized sounds. I was replying to your comment, quote, "An anglicized Hernandez should’ve sounded like Hernan-dase. But it never does. People always say Hernan-dares." I was just saying that I, and everyone I know, do not use either of these pronunciations.
About gingham: I looked at a rhyming dictionary and only found one word that was like gingham. Bingham, a proper name, so you may be right that gingham is a unique word. However, its uniqueness was never what I was commenting about. You are not dividing the syllables correctly. The "NG" goes with the first syllable. GING-HAM Look it up.
I looked. Then what?
I mean, what bearing does division have on how a word sounds ?
Sure, there is some utility to division. Unfortunately, extremely limited utility. Take a simplest case: robin.
You divide it like so: rob / in. Why? Because you don't want the 1st syllable to sound like "ro." You want "rob." But look what havoc that does to the 2nd syllable- need I say?
In other words, when it comes to pronunciation, you can not depend on division.
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I probably won't pursue this thread again no matter what you will say. Pretty sure I am out of ideas this time.
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