August 29, 2013

Finest Hour 106, Spring 2000

Page 13


FOREIGN PRONUNCIATION

Saryl Radwin ([email protected]) representing Hasbro, the originators of “Trivial Pursuit”) asked if Winston Churchill ever said, “Everybody has a right to pronounce foreign names as he chooses.” The editor is writing a book, The Churchill Lexicon, which he hopes will be the ultimate source of quips and quotes, but neither my database nor any references contain the above. But I did find other cute ones on the subject:

“I must say, even from the point of view of the ordinary uses of English, that it is not customary to quote a term in a foreign language, a capital town, a geographic place, when there exists a perfectly well-known English equivalent. It is usual to say ‘Paris,’ not ‘Paree.'” -Pawle, The War and Col. Warden, London: Harrap 1963

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[When someone pronounced Walshavn as “Vals-harvern”]: “Don’t be so B.B.C.—the place is WALLS-HAVEN!” -Pawle, op. cit.

“Jack, when you cross Europe you land at Marsai, spend a night in Lee-on and another in Par-ee, and, crossing by Callay, eventually reach Londres.I land at Mar-sales, spend a night in Lions, and another in Paris, and come home to London.” -WSC to his friend Jack Seely, later Lord Mottistone, in Eade, ed., Churchill by His Contemporaries, London: Hutchinson 1953

“In all correspondence, it would be more convenient to use the word ‘Persia’ instead of ‘Iran,’ as otherwise dangerous mistakes may easily occur through the similarity of Iran and Iraq….Formal correspondence with the Persian Government should of course be conducted in the form they like.” -Minute to the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Bridges and Gen. Ismay, in the Second World War, vol. Ill, Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1950

“I always thought it was a most unfortunate and most tiresome thing when both Persia and Mesopotamia changed their names at about the same time to two names which were so much alike—Iran and Iraq. I have endeavoured myself in the domestic sphere to avoid such risks [in naming Ministers].” -House of Commons, 7th May 41

Visiting Russia on 13th Feb 45, he was told by a Russian-speaking RAF officer that arrangements had been made to fly him home via “Sevastapol.” WSC replied: “Sebastapol’s good enough for me, young man.” -Halle, Irrepressible Churchill, NY: World 1966

“I do not consider that names that have been familiar for generations in England should be altered to study the whims of foreigners living in those parts. Where the name has no particular significance the local custom should be followed. However, Constantinople should never be abandoned, though for stupid people Istanbul may be written in brackets after it. As for Angora, long familiar with us through the Angora cats, I will resist to the utmost of my power its degradation to Ankara, [and…]

D “Bad luck…always pursues people who change the names of their cities. Fortune is rightly malignant to those who break with the traditions and customs of the past….Ankara is banned, unless in brackets afterwards. If we do not make a stand we shall in a few weeks be asked to call Leghorn ‘Livorno,’ and the B.B.C. will be pronouncing Paris ‘Paree.’ Foreign names were made for Englishmen, not Englishmen for foreign names. I date this minute from St. George’s Day.” -WSC, Minute to the Foreign Office, 23Apr45

• “The news which has come from Monte Viddy-oh has been received with thankfulness….The pocket battleship Graf Speeee…has met her doom…” -House of Commons, 18Dec39, after die scuttling of the GrafSpee off Montevideo, Uruguay, three days earlier.

“It is for me a high honour to receive today the Charlemagne Prize in this famous German and European city of Aachen, which some call Aix-la-Chapelle.” -Speech on receiving the Charlemagne Prize, 10th May 56.

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