PyeongChang: how do you say that in English?

Should we say the name of the host city of the 2018 winter Olympics the way the Koreans pronounce it [pʰjʌŋtɕʰaŋ]?  Or should we say it more in accord with English phonetics?

The following article by Jane Han spells out the controversy clearly:

"NBC, read my lips – it's PyeongChang" (The Korea Times [2/18/18)

For Olympics viewers in the U.S., PyeongChang is not heard the way Koreans know it, but more like PyeongChay-ing.

This is because NBC, the official broadcaster of the 2018 Winter Olympics, has decided to stick to its own pronunciation where the "chang" in PyeongChang rhymes with sang, instead of tong.

Even though this is wrong, NBC's pronunciation policy seems to exist because it sounds "cleaner," as Sports Business Journal quoted Mark [sic] NBC Broadcasting and Sports chairman Mark Lazarus as saying.

But as the network's coverage of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics continues, Asian journalists and Korean viewers are not too happy with the way the correct pronunciation is being ignored.

"It really should not be difficult to pronounce PyeongChang if you put in the due effort to learn the correct way to say it," said Kevin Lee, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles.

"If NBC is indeed purposely neglecting the accurate pronunciation because the wrong way sounds better, that's even worse because that is just disrespectful."

Dallas resident Jenny Kwon, who has been closely following the Olympics, says the inaccurate pronunciation of PyeongChang is annoying, but that may well be the American way.

"See how Americans pronounce IKEA," she said. "It's well known that the American way of saying the store name is wrong, but they continue to cling to their way. And there are so many other similar examples."

Noticing the inaccuracy and inconsistency in the way the host city's name is handled on air, Asian journalists have tried to promote correction.

Earlier this week, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the largest organization of Asian American journalists in the U.S., released a video demonstrating the pronunciation of PyeongChang.

"We've been getting a lot of questions about the correct pronunciation of the South Korean Olympic host city," said CeFaan Kim, AAJA's MediaWatch co-chair. "The correct pronunciation is PyeongChang…ang..like when you go to the doctor. Ah."

Despite growing criticism, an NBC Sports spokesperson told The Korea Times that the network was not intentionally mispronouncing PyeongChang.

"We have great respect for South Korea, its people, culture and language," the spokesperson said in an email response.

"When preparing for the Games, we heard a variety of different ways to say PyeongChang. Our commentators have no intent of saying it incorrectly or disrespectfully. We're trying to be consistent across our shows, while acknowledging that our on-air talent has slightly varying pronunciations, just as they do with English words.

"They are trying their best with Korean phonetics based on how they hear it, but inevitably it sounds different than if it were a native speaker."

I have added bold emphasis to the evaluative, judgemental terms used in the article.

Would you rather Americans say Běijīng [pèi.tɕíŋ] or Bayzhing or, for that matter, Peking (my preference, going back to the days of John MIlton, variants of which are still used in many languages around the world, and indeed in many Sinitic topolects?  See "Backhill/Peking/Beijing" (free pdf), Sino-Platonic Papers, 19 (June, 1990), 1-6.

In the interest of linguistic reciprocity, I asked a number of speakers of different languages how they say the names of various cities and places around the world (mostly American).  Their answers are often surprising and, in some cases, downright astonishing.

KOREAN

1.

Seattle 시애틀  Siaeteul

San Francisco 샌프란시스코  Saenpeuransiseuko

Atlanta  아틀란타 Ateullanta

New York 뉴욕  Nyuyok

Cleveland 클리브랜드  Keullibeuraendeu

Philadelphia  필라델피아 Pillidelpia

San Diego    샌디에이고   Saendieigo

San Jose    산호세    Sanhose   (Some people pronounce it as 새너제이 Saeneojei like American, but the official one is 산호세)

I used Revised Romanization.

2.

Seattle: 시애틀 (Shi ae teul)

San Francisco: 샌프란시스코 (Saen peu ran si seu ko)

Atlanta: 아틀란타 (At eul lan ta)

New York: 뉴욕 (Nyu yok)

Cleveland: 클리블랜드 (Keul li beul laen deu)

Missouri: 미주리 (Mi ju ri)

Michigan: 미시간 (Mi shi gan) – according to the McCune-Reischauer Romanization (Mi si gan is the romanization according to the Revised Romanization of Korean)

JAPANESE

Seattle Shiatoru シアトル

San Francisco Sanfuranshisuko サンフランシスコ

Atlanta Atoranta アトランタ

New York Nyūyōku ニューヨーク

Cleveland Kurīburando クリーブランド

Philadelphia Firaderufia フィラデルフィア

MANDARIN

Seattle Xīyǎtú 西雅图

San Francisco Jiùjīnshān 旧金山

Atlanta Yàtèlándà 亚特兰大

New York Niǔyuē 纽约

Cleveland Kèlìfūlán 克利夫兰

Philadelphia Fèichéng 费城

RUSSIAN

New York : Нью-Йорк

San Francisco: Сан-Франциско

Seattle : Сиэтл

Atlanta: Атланта

Cleveland: Кливленд

There is one place in the US that is often mistakenly translated in Russian: Silicon Valley as Силиконовая долина.

The word "Silicon" in English denotes a particular chemical element  Silicium, which should be translated in Russian as Кремний, therefore the correct translation of Silicon Valley in Russian should be Кремневая долина. The Russian word 'Силикон', which sounds similar to English "Silicon", means SiliconE, which is a chemical compound that is different SilicoN.

MONGOLIAN

New York is usually contracted into N’York, with a long ‘o’. The ‘a’ in Cleveland, since it is ae, people either say is as ‘ah’ or more frequently ‘eh’. I know a lot if people find the ‘v’ sound unnatural, especially those who didn’t study Russian, and call Virginia, Birjina/Berjina or Birjinia/Berjinia. Some people find ‘f’ unnatural, so Philadelphia would become Piladelp’.

TELEGU

I remember when I was trying to trace the pilgrimage route of Enugula Veeraswamy, documented by him in Telugu in a narrative entitled Kasiyatra Charitramu, on Survey of India maps.  There was one place in his Telugu narrative that I just couldn't seem to locate–it would have transliterated as Magadanaldu Chatram. Finally, after much difficulty, I realized it was McDonald's Choultry (Chatram and Choultry both are terms for a resthouse).

It's almost always the English words in Telugu script that I have the toughest time understanding!

MARATHI

sīyāṭala, sāna phrānsisko, aṭlānṭā, nyū yārk, klīvhlanḍ

The interesting one is always Newark, which is pronounced nevārk by many.

Marathi speakers have an interesting way of pronouncing v and w in English as vh.

TAMIL

English names are Tamilized in accordance with Tamil phonology. Most of the clusters are declusterized in Tamil.  Some of the place names in Tamil are as below:

siyāṭṭal sāṉ pirāṉciskō aṭlāṇṭṭā niyūyārk cikkākō kiḷivlāṇṭ niyūjerci  okāyō ṭōkkiyō

As you know,  when English words are written in Tamil script, much phonetic information becomes obscure due to the absence of script for voiced letters.

This is how Ohio is written in Tamil, but intervocalically k becomes h in Tamil, while orthographically only k is written.  c becomes s intervocalically, k becomes g before nasal and so on are some of the phonological rules in Tamil. So, Ohio would be written okāyō and pronounced ohāyō.

Phonemic    phonetic

/ciyāṭṭal/ > [siyāṭṭal]

/cāṉ pirāṉciskō/ > [sāṉ pirāṉsiskō]

/okāyō/ > [ohāyō]

aṭlāṇṭā niyūyārk cikkākō kiḷivlāṇṭ niyūjerci ṭōkkiyō are the same phonemically and phonetically.

THAI

We pronounce those names similarly to English speakers with some Thai accent (wrong stress).

I think one interesting city name is Bangkok. We pronounce it บางกอก  [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk], but the name was changed to กรุงเทพฯ  [krūŋ tʰêːp] around two hundred years ago (by the same king who ordered the translation of The Three Kingdoms. The full name of the city is considered the longest city name in the world:

Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit

กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

We even have a song to remember this name: listen here.

VHM:  Here is an English translation of the full Thai name for Bangkok, which consists of Pali and Sanskrit words:

City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest.

Source

Most Thais I know have long names, and — no matter what their original ethnic derivation, their surnames are usually Sanskritically based.  When I first met a woman named Pratoom Angurarohita, her surname stymied me, but then I collected myself and looked at its Sanskrit roots and it no longer intimidated me.  Ever after that time, I could rattle off long Thai names without much trouble.

See:

"Bahasa and the concept of "National Language"" (3/14/13)

Returning to the question with which we began this post, after the Olympics, "PyeongChang" will go back to being "Pyeongchang", but we will still be caught in a quandary over how to pronounce it:  accurately / correctly / right or inaccurately / incorrectly / wrong.

[Thanks to Haewon Cho, Lisa Mitchell, Pushkar Sohoni, Shelley Shim, Nikita Kuzmin, Dotno Pount, Jichang Lulu, Pattira Thaithosaeng, and Vasu Renganathan]