A good weekend to you. One of the most persistent questions we get is, “Why did you pronounce [fill in the blank] that way?”
How we say the names of people and places can be editorial decisions. Tony Cavin is NPR's managing editor for standards and practices. We asked:
How do you decide how a name should be pronounced? Cavin: It’s a balancing act. We try to call people what they want to be called and things what they are called by those people who know them best. I try to find local pronunciations. But we also need to use language that listeners will understand.
Why did Kyiv go from being pronounced Kee-yev to Keev? We officially changed our pronunciation just before the invasion last year to be more in line with Ukrainian speakers.
Then why don’t we say Paree for Paris, Roma for Rome, or, for that matter, New Awlins for New Orleans or Bahstan for Boston? Paris and Rome and the names of countless other major cities are used so often in English that there are anglicized versions. Even Sylvia Poggioli says Rome. New Awlins and Bahstan are more complicated. That’s how some residents of those cities pronounce the names, but by no means everyone. As a New Yorker, I ask you not to confuse New York’s Houston (HOW ston) street with that city in Texas.
Do you ever see a new name in the news and shudder to think how Scott will mangle it? Simón [pronounced see MOHN, Mexican slang for “yeah man”]. That’s what gets me up and caffeinated first thing every Saturday morning. I need to monitor that fellow very closely.
Scott Simon is one of NPR's most renowned news anchors. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and one of the hosts of the morning news podcast Up First. Be sure to listen to him every Saturday on your local NPR station, and follow him on Twitter.
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