OT: The correct pronunciation of Diane Arbus

[That Derek]

I heard a story on NYC's NewsRadio WINS-AM last night about the passing of M*A*S*H actor Allan Arbus. Said story made mention of his ex-wife, famed photographer Diane Arbus and pronounced it as it as "digh-ANN." Ms. Arbus preferred the pronunciation "dee-ANN."

The Library of Congress's NLS (National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped)maintains an on-line reference called "Say How?" which shows how to pronounce the names of thousands of celebrities, athletes, politicians, scandal figures, and a whole bunch of other people who will never make it into a reference work such as the "Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary. It's accessible at:

http://www.loc.gov/nls/other/sayhow.html

NLS also oversees the entire LoC Talking Books programme. The "NLS Say How?" list was compiled by veteran Talking Book narrator Ray Hagen, who continues to oversee its upkeep.

A simple cut-'n'-paste from the "Say How?" website backs up my "dee-ANN" contention.

Aramony, William (AR-ə-mō-nē)
Aranow, Zedra (ZED-rə AR-ə- nou)
Arau, Alfonso (ə-ROU)
Arbus, Diane (dē-AN ÄRB-əs)
Arcand, Denys (də-NĒ är-KÄN)
Arce, Hector (ÄR-sē)

Granted, a news reader unfamiliar with Diane Arbus might be inclined to lean towards the more familiar "digh-ANN." However, I have a theory that some artists deliberately choose and take on a less familiar pronunciation just to give them something additional to be temperamental about.

Take, for example, controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Looking at it, one would assume the first half of the name should rhyme with "apple," when actually it rhymes with "staple."

[tr...@iwvisp.com]

I had a teacher in Junior H S who had difficulty pronouncing my legal
last name, Tregembo. He had me pronounce it several times so that he
could get it correct. He said, to me and the class, "Your name is the
only thing that belongs to you and you alone. It deserves to be
pronounced correctly by everyone with whom you have dealings." He
then gave the following humorous and ridiculous example, "It's spelled
B-a-t-t-l-e-s-h-i-p ... but it's pronounced "Smith."

Ray Arthur

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <c140a31e-5820-4e26...@googlegroups.com>,

That Derek <that...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I heard a story on NYC's NewsRadio WINS-AM last night about the passing of
> M*A*S*H actor Allan Arbus. Said story made mention of his ex-wife, famed
> photographer Diane Arbus and pronounced it as it as "digh-ANN." Ms. Arbus
> preferred the pronunciation "dee-ANN."
>
> The Library of Congress's NLS (National Library for the Blind and Physically
> Handicapped)maintains an on-line reference called "Say How?" which shows how
> to pronounce the names of thousands of celebrities, athletes, politicians,
> scandal figures, and a whole bunch of other people who will never make it
> into a reference work such as the "Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary.
> It's accessible at:
>
> http://www.loc.gov/nls/other/sayhow.html
>
> NLS also oversees the entire LoC Talking Books programme. The "NLS Say How?"
> list was compiled by veteran Talking Book narrator Ray Hagen, who continues
> to oversee its upkeep.
>
> A simple cut-'n'-paste from the "Say How?" website backs up my "dee-ANN"
> contention.
>

> Aramony, William (AR-?-m?-n?)
> Aranow, Zedra (ZED-r? AR-?- nou)
> Arau, Alfonso (?-ROU)
> Arbus, Diane (d?-AN ÄRB-?s)
> Arcand, Denys (d?-N? är-KÄN)
> Arce, Hector (ÄR-s?)

>
> Granted, a news reader unfamiliar with Diane Arbus might be inclined to lean
> towards the more familiar "digh-ANN." However, I have a theory that some
> artists deliberately choose and take on a less familiar pronunciation just to
> give them something additional to be temperamental about.
>
> Take, for example, controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
> Looking at it, one would assume the first half of the name should
> rhyme with "apple," when actually it rhymes with "staple."

I didn't know about the LoC pronunciation guide. Great stuff. Thanks.

I can guess, and I think I'm right about this, that no one at WINS
thought twice about how to pronounce Diane in this case, given the
standard spelling and that she died more than forty years ago. I can
also guess that if you'd called the WINS desk and told them the proper
pronunciation, they'd have been grateful.

[cathyc...@aol.com]

Welcome to the land of the anally retentive!

[BobF]

On Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:22:49 -0700 (PDT), "tr...@iwvisp.com"
<tr...@iwvisp.com> shouted from the highest rooftop:

>I had a teacher in Junior H S who had difficulty pronouncing my legal
>last name, Tregembo. He had me pronounce it several times so that he
>could get it correct. He said, to me and the class, "Your name is the
>only thing that belongs to you and you alone. It deserves to be
>pronounced correctly by everyone with whom you have dealings." He
>then gave the following humorous and ridiculous example, "It's spelled
>B-a-t-t-l-e-s-h-i-p ... but it's pronounced "Smith."

Years ago when my wife and I were looking for beachfront properties
with a local real estate agent when we visited a house where the owner
was at home. The agent introduced us as Mr and Mrs Feigel -
pronouncing it correctly - and the owner immediately snapped back,
"That's Fee-gal." I said, "no, it's pronounced Fi-gehl with a hard g
and she said "I don't care how you think it's pronounced, I know it's
Fee-gal."

We were amused, but the agent was embarrassed so we thanked the owner
and moved on without bothering to see the house.

The woman died a couple of years after we'd moved to another house
further up the beach and was sold by her estate before being
demolished because it was in such bad shape. In the meantime, we'd
learned that the woman we'd met was known locally for being
"difficult." Too right she was difficult ...


--

"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Dave Garrett]

In article <fa7b156b-6ef9-44d4-bb4c-
03aca0...@i20g2000pbq.googlegroups.com>, tr...@iwvisp.com says...

> I had a teacher in Junior H S who had difficulty pronouncing my legal
> last name, Tregembo. He had me pronounce it several times so that he
> could get it correct. He said, to me and the class, "Your name is the
> only thing that belongs to you and you alone. It deserves to be
> pronounced correctly by everyone with whom you have dealings." He
> then gave the following humorous and ridiculous example, "It's spelled
> B-a-t-t-l-e-s-h-i-p ... but it's pronounced "Smith."

It's spelled "Raymond Luxury-Yacht", but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler
Mangrove".

[cathyc...@aol.com]

Of course, the old difficult lady was right. You can choose to pronounce your name any way you'd like even if you're wrong. But it doesn't make you less wrong. Some dumb inbred relative just changed the pronunciation at some point and you're still following along ignorantly.

It's the Brett Favre syndrome. He can pronounce it Farve but there's no way in hell you get that out if Favre.

[David Uri]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:45:52 +1200, BobF <b...@surfwriter.net.not>
wrote:

>Years ago when my wife and I were looking for beachfront properties
>with a local real estate agent when we visited a house where the owner
>was at home. The agent introduced us as Mr and Mrs Feigel -
>pronouncing it correctly - and the owner immediately snapped back,
>"That's Fee-gal." I said, "no, it's pronounced Fi-gehl with a hard g
>and she said "I don't care how you think it's pronounced, I know it's
>Fee-gal."

Just so long as she didn't call you a Faygele...

Regards,
--
David Uri.
Please visit my town - http://allezblancs.miniville.fr
Every visitor increases the population by one.
Email: davidu...@bigfoot.com (remove VEST to reply)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/daviduri
VK: http://www.vk.com/daviduri

[R H Draney]

cathyc...@aol.com filted:
>
>Of course, the old difficult lady was right. You can choose to pronounce yo=
>ur name any way you'd like even if you're wrong. But it doesn't make you le=
>ss wrong. Some dumb inbred relative just changed the pronunciation at some =
>point and you're still following along ignorantly.=20
>
>It's the Brett Favre syndrome. He can pronounce it Farve but there's no way=

> in hell you get that out if Favre.

He learned that stunt from Ralph Fiennes....

A few days ago I was on my way to the home of a fellow member that I'd never
visited before...my GPS gave the name of a street I was supposed to turn on as
"Friess"...when I got to the corner the sign spelled it "Freiss"...I wondered if
any developer would be so stupid as to include both names in the same
neighborhood....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[bigwa...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 5:04:52 PM UTC-7, cathyc...@aol.com wrote:

> It's the Brett Favre syndrome. He can pronounce it Farve but there's no way in hell you get that out if Favre.

-------- favre in french is fah-vre, but americans have a tough time with that glottal r, so brett, in order to get a pronunciation that is close, changed the pronunciation to far-ve. that keeps the ah (french ) sound and avoids adding a reh sound on the end . . .

Big

[cathyc...@aol.com]

And he was wrong.