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ArchivesRe: Names with several origins?
in reply to a message by Sabertooth
You are right, using pronounciations instead of spellings is another approach, which may have advantages.
But pronounciations are so much more "slippery" than spellings, they vary from language to language and sometimes even from region to region within the same language.
And there are other problems:
Of course it would be nice to have a number of pronounciations for each name of BtN's database, ideally in IPA because that's a standard, and then search functions that list names with the same pronounciation, regardless of spelling. But just think of the amount of work needed to research and enter all that data...
But pronounciations are so much more "slippery" than spellings, they vary from language to language and sometimes even from region to region within the same language.
And there are other problems:
Of course it would be nice to have a number of pronounciations for each name of BtN's database, ideally in IPA because that's a standard, and then search functions that list names with the same pronounciation, regardless of spelling. But just think of the amount of work needed to research and enter all that data...
This message was edited 1/2/2015, 9:30 AM
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Replies
The problem with using spellings is that they do not avoid the problem except for western names. Names of Indian origin often have multiple spellings without them being considered different: the pronunciations are also somewhat varied.
Actually things are really complicated in India. Different parts use different scripts (most of either Brahmi or Arabic origin, but that is beside the point), so it is not clear how to use the spelling definition of name identity straightforwardly. To complicate matters, they are usually pronounced differently, and though the spellings in most of the north Indian Brahmi origin scripts are related, the spellings in some scripts like Tamil are different. Yet, there is a very definite concept of the name being the same name or not defined partly by the etymology and partly whether they follow the regular correspondence rules between the sounds in the different languages: etymology wins when etymology is clear and well-known.
I like going by the predominant pronunciation because they can be compared across languages, whereas spelling often can't.
Actually things are really complicated in India. Different parts use different scripts (most of either Brahmi or Arabic origin, but that is beside the point), so it is not clear how to use the spelling definition of name identity straightforwardly. To complicate matters, they are usually pronounced differently, and though the spellings in most of the north Indian Brahmi origin scripts are related, the spellings in some scripts like Tamil are different. Yet, there is a very definite concept of the name being the same name or not defined partly by the etymology and partly whether they follow the regular correspondence rules between the sounds in the different languages: etymology wins when etymology is clear and well-known.
I like going by the predominant pronunciation because they can be compared across languages, whereas spelling often can't.
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