I remember once somebody--maybe it was Nabokov?--saying something about emphasis in Russian being hard for English speakers? Like Americans always put emphasis on syllables of his name where it should be all the same. So he pronounced his name "Vlad-i-mir-Nab-o-kov" and Americans always said "VLAD-imir NAB-okov" or "Vlad-I-mir Nav-OK-ov" or Vlad-i-MIR Nav-a-KOV."
It was funny listening to him explain it so I always remembered it and now I wonder if that makes it hard to hear it on the tape!
I've known couples where everyone refers to the man by a nickname except his wife and I always imagine Elizabeth easily comes across that way to others. When that happens it seems like sometimes it comes across like an affectations of the wife's and sometimes a case of the husband really thinking of himself as his full name. With Elizabeth and Phil it would probably come across as being about her.
I can imagine Philip trying out a few American dad nicknames with the kids and Elizabeth just giving him a withering look. Nicknames in English can be just about anything.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-08-04 02:56 pm (UTC)It was funny listening to him explain it so I always remembered it and now I wonder if that makes it hard to hear it on the tape!
I've known couples where everyone refers to the man by a nickname except his wife and I always imagine Elizabeth easily comes across that way to others. When that happens it seems like sometimes it comes across like an affectations of the wife's and sometimes a case of the husband really thinking of himself as his full name. With Elizabeth and Phil it would probably come across as being about her.
I can imagine Philip trying out a few American dad nicknames with the kids and Elizabeth just giving him a withering look. Nicknames in English can be just about anything.