I have never figured out how to pronounce the family name of Alberto Fujimori, quondam president of Peru. There is debate over whether he was born in Japan or Peru, but his native language is Spanish, so he (like all Peruvians) pronounces his name with a Spanish j (=kh). That should settle the matter, except that it feels strange to be pronouncing a clearly Japanese name in such an un-Japanese way. (Compare the discussion of how to pronounce foreign names in this earlier entry.)
Posted by languagehat at December 22, 2002 04:17 PMIn English we don't (always) let our own spelling conventions rule our pronunciation of foreign names; why should they in Spanish?
Posted by: Anton Sherwood at December 24, 2002 10:12 PMProbably because English has such an opaque spelling system that we're used to words not sounding like they look like they should sound; in Spanish, on the other hand, sounds are clearly indicated by the spelling, so there's no tradition of pronouncing things in unusual ways.
Posted by: language hat at December 26, 2002 05:15 PMThe Ogre defends unanglicized pronunciations here.
Posted by: language hat at December 27, 2002 10:39 AM