Hello everyone,

I´ve opened up this thread because we have come across a British name, Robin Hood during a Turkish Literature class, and the teacher insisted that it should be pronunced as it is written(in Turkish), thus as "Ro-been Hoot" and that sounded awfully awkward and wrong to my ears..  What are your comments on this issue? Is there a rule for pronunciation of foreign names in Turkish?  I´d be glad to hear all your comments on this, thank you!

Merhaba herkese,

Bu konuyu açmamýn nedeni Türk Dili ve Edebiyatý dersi sýrasýnda Ýngiliz bir isim olan "Robin Hood" ismiyle karþýlaþmamýz ve öðretmenin bu ismin Türkçe okunuþu þeklinde, yani "Robin Hut" olarak okunmasý gerektiðini ýsrar etmesidir.  Bu okunuþ bana çok tuhaf ve yanlýþ geldi.  Bu konudaki yorumlarýnýz nelerdir?  Türkçe´de yabancý isimlerin telafuzu hakkýnda bir kural var mýdýr?  Bu konu hakkýnda hepinizin yorumlarýný duymayý isterim, teþekkürler!

ps: If there´s a thread already devoted to this topic, please post the link=)

I think the rule is to spell it phonetically, the way the are pronounced. It´s not unique to Turkish though, in Polish too we say foreign names the way they are pronounced (for example Szekspir for Shakespeare - Szekspir would be pronounced Þekspir if using Turkish letters - I have a feeling it´s probably something similar in Turkish too).

It probably sounds odd to somebody who grew up learning the original pronounciation, but I think it sounds more natural to a native speaker.

May be that links should be help you for your question.

http://www.zoque.net/az-ama-oz/22967-yabanci-isimlerin-dogru-yazilisi-2/

and

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikipedi_tart%C4%B1%C5%9Fma:T%C3%BCrk%C3%A7enin_kullan%C4%B1m%C4%B1

According to the first link I live in Ãžikago.  

, apparently

My problem is not the written version, thank god we use the original name when writing it, and that putting the pronunciation may work just fine, but that´s actually where the problem starts , let me give another example;

this is a funny one I know but,

Voldemort

when you pronunce it, it´s something like Voldýmood in Turkish, but the teacher keeps saying it´s VoldemoRT putting emphasis on R and T which both should be almost silent.. I wouldn´t care much if she said it that way, but she doesn´t let me say it with the proper pronunciation either!(threatened to send me to the disciplinary commitee bla bla) So I need some sort of rule designed for this, because as you may imagine it´s incredibly hard and funny(!) for me to pronunce those names as they´re written in Turkish!=)

One of the most unfortunate persons to have a problem of this sort these days must be Harry Kewell who keeps hearing people call him Hairy Kewell in a bombastic manner.

Here comes Haiiiiryyy Kewellll!

Romanian prime minister"s name is Emil Boc (Bok sounds in turkish) . One time was an amical footboll match in Antalya between politicians and our gallary was screeming his name Bok Bok Bok

haha loving this "Bok" thing

When you say "I´m sick" ( =Hastayým in Turkish ) in English,  it sounds weird in Turkish for someone who doesn´t speak any English at all.

Same with the verb "TO HAVE" 1st person singular in romanian .

  Ex.   " I have only 13-14 players in.."