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OldEurope

(1,282 posts)

18. But how do you know how to pronounce them?

Thu May 30, 2013, 01:16 PM

May 2013

Take the some Polish or Hungarian king, Kazimiersz, Hunyadi Mátyás.
Or the Chinese...
How could you possibly pronounce all languages correctly?

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Foreign kings' names [View all] Bucky May 2013 OP

Kaiser and Czar come from Ceaser and Emperor Drale May 2013 #1

We use Emperor for what the Austrians called Kaiser. So that's one exception. Bucky May 2013 #6

The Bonapartes were empereur, not roi Bad Thoughts May 2013 #57

Both "Kaiser" and "Czar" were derived from "Caesar" Canuckistanian May 2013 #2

English is a messy language with many languages at its roots. Cleita May 2013 #3

I'm pretty sure King doesn't come from Khan. Bucky May 2013 #9

Khan is a derivative of a Indo-Aryan language. Qatun is the female Cleita May 2013 #29

No, it's Turkic muriel_volestrangler May 2013 #59

It's up for debate. Even linguists aren't sure but Cleita May 2013 #62

If you can show a single linguist who considers it, fine muriel_volestrangler May 2013 #63

Frankly, who really cares. It's related to our words king and konig and it Cleita May 2013 #64

Not a Turk in sight in that chart muriel_volestrangler May 2013 #65

Khan's definitely Turkic, not Indo-European. (nt) Posteritatis May 2013 #39

Both 'Kaiser' And 'Czar', Sir, Derive From 'Caeser' The Magistrate May 2013 #4

Interesting. I'm still not sure why the courtesy was extended to Germany but not Austria. Bucky May 2013 #10

No Idea, Sir The Magistrate May 2013 #15

A lot of it's how those nations refer to the terms themselves Posteritatis May 2013 #40

Tenno is Emperor, reserved for the descendant of Amaterasu nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #5

Rey like the French roi is from OldEurope May 2013 #7

Yup nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #8

My favorite royal title is the feminine form of "assistant monarch" Bucky May 2013 #11

That is a good one nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #13

And marquess is male, weirdly Recursion May 2013 #36

'Marchioness', not '-ette' (nt) muriel_volestrangler May 2013 #60

d'oh Thank you (nt) Recursion May 2013 #61

Saying the name in their launguage seems proper to me. hrmjustin May 2013 #12

But how do you know how to pronounce them? OldEurope May 2013 #18

Research and luck. hrmjustin May 2013 #19

Many of us already meet a staggering variety of names and do alright. Posteritatis May 2013 #42

Refer 'Ri' or modern usage in my native tongue 'Righ' MichaelMcGuire May 2013 #14

Oh. So that's why it's called a "Royal Sandwich" Bucky May 2013 #16

Or, as the French pronounced it... Bucky May 2013 #17

It's pronounced 'ree' MichaelMcGuire May 2013 #21

In Ireland LibertyLover May 2013 #28

I can Ard Ri believe it! Bucky May 2013 #31

[wail of anguish] (nt) Posteritatis May 2013 #44

R� ruirech MichaelMcGuire May 2013 #48

haha unrelated sadly MichaelMcGuire May 2013 #20

Why say "Par-iss" and not "Par-eee"? Nye Bevan May 2013 #22

Paris is a city, not a king. uppityperson May 2013 #25

Thanks. That's very helpful (nt) Nye Bevan May 2013 #26

Pedantry is a two-edged sword. LooseWilly May 2013 #50

Right. Plus there's only one *real* Paris (and this is a Texan saying this) Bucky May 2013 #32

Because the English pronunciation hasn't changed as much as the French one has Spider Jerusalem May 2013 #37

Also the word: Italy in Italy is Italia. Prounounced: E-tah-lee-ah Tx4obama May 2013 #45

Let's call the whole thing off. Orrex May 2013 #23

I don't talk about them enough to worry about it Retrograde May 2013 #24

It has to do with importance historically Fearless May 2013 #27

I'm not sure either of those proposed rules work out in practice Bucky May 2013 #38

The extent to which a concept can be argued to be unique matters Bad Thoughts May 2013 #58

The opposite's often the case: tsar, reich, sultan... (nt) Posteritatis May 2013 #41

All easy to say. Fearless May 2013 #56

Well, today's Japanese Tenno Art_from_Ark May 2013 #30

I used to make that mistake too. Bucky May 2013 #33

I don't know where you learned that "mikado" means "gate" Art_from_Ark May 2013 #34

The emperor was also king of Hungary and Bohemia Recursion May 2013 #35

When in doubt I try to go by what's officially used in other languages Posteritatis May 2013 #43

I try to avoid anglicizing names if I know better LostOne4Ever May 2013 #46

Me too. I always say "zhong guo" (pronounced "jum gwoo") instead of China, for example. Nye Bevan May 2013 #47

This message was self-deleted by its author BainsBane May 2013 #49

Do the Kims in North Korea count as 'kings' - grandfather - father - son - sounds like royalty. pampango May 2013 #51

I dunno. I go with what's common, and popular usage of words/terms isn't always logical NYC Liberal May 2013 #52

I think this is where "potato--potahto" come in. WinkyDink May 2013 #53

German: Imperator and Kaiser are different concepts Bad Thoughts May 2013 #54

And yet they were also Kings in their own right, as a separate question Recursion May 2013 #55