Rudolf Hooijenga wrote: > > As for "Oughtred", I never gave it a thought, always having assumed it was > "Ought" as in "you ought to do this" plus "red" as in the colour. > > A famous family of packet drivers for (among others) Ethernet cards comes > from a firm called Crnwyr. > > Just to be on the safe side, there was a .wav file on their web page that > pronounced this name for you.
I have a British friend who is always pulling the legs of his American friends (and foes) because (se says) Americans do not know how to spell and pronounce proper names. As a foreigner who has learned a little English by reading and writing (as opposed to listening and speaking), I have always had enormous difficulties guessing how to pronounce certain proper nouns. Sometimes the best of my efforts take me miles aways from the right sounds. This is kind of funny because it can not happen in Portuguese unless it is a foreign name. I think it does not happen in other langagues either, like Italian, Spanish and German. I am glad to learn that native speakers can have some difficulties too. Maybe from now on I will not feel so embarrassed as I used to when I have to face the daunting task of pronouncing someone's name over the phone and get the other side to understand who I am referring to. :-) - fernando -- REDUZIR, REUSAR, RECICLAR -- Dever de todos, amor aos que virão REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE -- Everybody's duty, love to those who are to come Fernando Cabral Padrao iX Sistemas Abertos mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pix.com.br Fone Direto: +55 61 329-0206 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] PABX: +55 61 329-0202 Fax: +55 61 326-3082 15º 45' 04.9" S (23 L 0196446/8256520) 47º 49' 58.6" W 19º 37' 57.0" S (23 K 0469898/7829161) 45º 17' 13.6" W
