Question How do you pronounce 'Hohmann' in your language?

[PeterRoss]

I studied Russian for a few semesters in university. My understanding that there was an accent or dialect of Russian that tended to pronounce 'h' as a 'g'? Our instructor at the time said Boris Yeltsin had this particular accent and that it made him sound a bit like what in America would be called a "hick" (a mildly derogatory term for a country boy).

I'm afraid my Russian skills have eroded badly over the years. Can any native Russian speakers comment on this? I'm curious.

Can't tell about really old times, but from what I know from my personal experience, 'h' and 'g' sounds mixing with each other comes into Russian from Ukrainian accent which has that 'g' sound pronounciation mixed with 'h'. Yeltsin was speaking with this exact accent which made him sound like a 'contry boy' indeed. (He was quite an old boy though:lol Since Ukraina was Russia's country land for ages (it was a cradle of Russian statehood in fact) this accent was considered as a country accent until recently. Moreover, it was considered as funny even by Ukrainians themselves shortly after Ukraina gained independence and became aware of its own language adoption. They're getting used to it with time.

A bit of both. Russian doesn't have the sound represented by "h" in English, German, etc, so a lot of early loanwords from those languages were spelled with "г", because that's apparently what the Russians of the time thought was the closest sound in Russian to the /h/ they heard in English/German/whatever. More recent loanwords tend to be borrowed with "х" (which certainly sounds more like /h/ to English speakers than "г" does, and given that English doesn't have the sound represented by Russian "х" or German "ch", you don't even have to worry about an English speaker confusing [h] and [x]).

Well, it explains pretty much everything. The first example from Martin's post shows nothing what would have sounded like 'г' in German pronounciation, but having 'г' itself pronounced in a different way in old times seems like an answer.

Now why do I have to pronounce Hohman's surname in incorrect way? :facepalm: In fact, we pronounce many German words and names in this way: Hamburg, Hans, even Hitler all starts from "г" sound in Russian.

 

[Linguofreak]

/hœmæn/

:blink:

You pronounce "Hohmann" with /œ/???!

That would be the German pronunciation of something like "Hömmann" or "Höhmann" if you used /ø/ instead of /œ/, but Standard German doesn't have /æ/, and English doesn't have /œ/ (or front rounded vowels in general).

You are aptly named.

My intended major (and actual minor) in college was Linguistics, but I couldn't afford to go to my first-choice school (which had an undergrad ling major), so I majored in German instead.

In retrospect, I should have majored in computer science and minored in German or Linguistics, and done the same exchange year in Germany that I did during my senior "year". I wouldn't have missed much that I got doing things the way I did them, and would have had the advantage of a hirable degree, which I would have found just as fun as the degree I actually got.

 

[Ripley]

In German, it is pronouced as "Hohmann"... which means, a long vocal o (second h is silent) and a short "a" (because of the double "n"). Basically the concat of "Hoh" and "Mann". And "Mann" is not spoken like man, which has the same meaning in English, but the a is spoken like in bath.

Although I'm Italian, I pronounce it exactly as Urwumpe described.

 

[4throck]

Strictly, H is silent, but many of the people I asked did pronounce the first H correctly. Mostly due to influence of the English language in Brazilian society, I guess. What varied most was the tempo - some stressed the O, some stressed the A.

Same in Portugal I guess, but it depend on age and studies.


- Something like "Homan" for people under 40 that had English at school as first foreign language. The "H" will stress the "o".

- Older people studied more French, so they would go for "Omaene".

- Even older people with no foreign language knowledge would read it with tradition portuguese rules (silent H, final N dealt as if it was an M) so it would be "Omam" or "Omã"


Nevertheless, the final possibility is in fact the correct one for a Portuguese speaker. One should not use foreign pronunciations. Of course, this rule is disregarded...

 

[Unstung]

I've never had the opportunity to use "Hohmann transfer orbit" in a discussion, but I currently pronounce it as "Hoh-man" until I listen to some pronunciations a few more times in this thread.

 

[PeterRoss]

..."Omam" or "Omã"

Ok, I woud have considered this weird, but I've found recently that Russia in Vietnamese is pronounced as 'Nga'... so, no, "Omã" is alright :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

same as calling Germany Alemania in many languages, despite the majority of the Alemand territory being outside Germany. Alemand dialects are today mostly spoken in Switzerland.

The reason why is plain politics... In the middle ages, the political center of the Holy Roman Empire was in the south of Germany and thus, the German center of it was called "regnum alemanniae" in Latin.

 

[PeterRoss]

same as calling Germany Alemania in many languages, despite the majority of the Alemand territory being outside Germany. Alemand dialects are today mostly spoken in Switzerland.

The reason why is plain politics... In the middle ages, the political center of the Holy Roman Empire was in the south of Germany and thus, the German center of it was called "regnum alemanniae" in Latin.

Yeah, I suppose "Nga" isn't produced by pronounciation. Seems like its origins are expalined in this phrase taken from Wikipedia:

Danh xưng "Nga" trong tiếng Việt là giản xưng của Nga La Tư (Trung văn phồn thể: 俄羅斯; giản thể: 俄罗斯), dịch danh Trung văn của quốc hiệu nước Nga.

Anyone into Vietnamese? If I get Google Translator correctly it has something to do with Chinese.

 

[4throck]

... the German center of it was called "regnum alemanniae" in Latin.

Indeed. Germany is "Alemanha" in Portuguese, direct from Latin.

Nevertheless, one cannot say alemanic forces in Portuguese. In that case we use germanic forces ("forças germânicas"). Makes little sense, but that's how it is...


One of my favorite oddities in language is the Portuguese expression "oxalá". We use it every day, and means I hope, but in fact the original sense is "god willing", direct from the Arabic "in shaa Allaah"!
It has no direct religious connection today, but the pronunciation is still quite close to the original....

 

[PeterRoss]

Nevertheless, one cannot say alemanic forces in Portuguese. In that case we use germanic forces ("forças germânicas"). Makes little sense, but that's how it is...

Speaking of which. Germany is 'Германия' in Russian which is pretty all the same. But a German person is called 'немец' (/niemetz/). This word originates from old-slavic radical which means 'dumb' i.e. person who cannot speak, foreigner.

 

[sorindafabico]

Indeed. Germany is "Alemanha" in Portuguese, direct from Latin.

Nevertheless, one cannot say alemanic forces in Portuguese. In that case we use germanic forces ("forças germânicas"). Makes little sense, but that's how it is...

Something similar applies to the word "guerra" (war). The substantive comes from gothic "wirro", but the adjective "bélico" is from latin "bellum".

One should not use foreign pronunciations.

I think names are a valid exception to this.

 

[Eccentrus]

well yes, I agree that names should be pronounced as closely as possible to the original pronunciation, except if it's Chinese