Because “places have names in their own language” is a two-way street, and most English speakers pronounce Barcelona with a regular “S” sound. Unless you’re a native Spanish speaker (particularly Spanish Spanish) you’re probably just being performative.
In English? No. In their native language? Maybe, maybe not.
But if everyone in your native language pronounces it “Connect-icut” and that’s the way you’ve always said it, but after one summer trip there you walk around your hometown saying “Connecticut” in a perfect American accent then yeah you’re probably being pretentious.
I think it’s dependent on the language, and subsequently the culture.
I saw you mentioned in another comment that you’re a native German speaker. I took four years of German in high school and I know a decent amount of it. We have lots of German loanwords in English and I know how to say them perfectly, but if I suddenly switched to perfect German pronunciation when I used them it would come off as pretentious. In Germany there are a lot of people who speak English very well, more than there are foreign language speakers in the US, so maybe it wouldn’t be as out of the ordinary to say an English word “correctly” as it would be for an American speaker to do the same with another language.
I’m not really understanding what your spelling is pronouncing wrong with that place. Or have I been pronouncing it wrong? Native English speaker here, British though not American
I would also add, that after having enough exposure to a language it gets hard to shake it off when switching back to English. So I sometimes accidentally pronounce Spanish places as in Spanish because it slips faster than I can correct it to be as in English
Because “places have names in their own language” is a two-way street, and most English speakers pronounce Barcelona with a regular “S” sound. Unless you’re a native Spanish speaker (particularly Spanish Spanish) you’re probably just being performative.
So, unless I’m a native English speaker (which I’m not), I should say Connect-icut?
I would never fault a non-native English speaker for pronouncing something, especially a proper noun, the way it’s spelled.
But would you call a person pronouncing it correctly pretentions?
In English? No. In their native language? Maybe, maybe not.
But if everyone in your native language pronounces it “Connect-icut” and that’s the way you’ve always said it, but after one summer trip there you walk around your hometown saying “Connecticut” in a perfect American accent then yeah you’re probably being pretentious.
Hmm… okay, maybe I don’t get it because I’m the pretentious one.
I think it’s dependent on the language, and subsequently the culture.
I saw you mentioned in another comment that you’re a native German speaker. I took four years of German in high school and I know a decent amount of it. We have lots of German loanwords in English and I know how to say them perfectly, but if I suddenly switched to perfect German pronunciation when I used them it would come off as pretentious. In Germany there are a lot of people who speak English very well, more than there are foreign language speakers in the US, so maybe it wouldn’t be as out of the ordinary to say an English word “correctly” as it would be for an American speaker to do the same with another language.
You’re missing out! It’s so fun to mock people for not predicting the utterly unpredictable!
Obligatory Map Men: https://youtu.be/uYNzqgU7na4
I’m not really understanding what your spelling is pronouncing wrong with that place. Or have I been pronouncing it wrong? Native English speaker here, British though not American
It’s pronounced without the C in front of the T
Except the native language of Barcelona is arguably Catalan, not Castilliano (Spanish)
I would also add, that after having enough exposure to a language it gets hard to shake it off when switching back to English. So I sometimes accidentally pronounce Spanish places as in Spanish because it slips faster than I can correct it to be as in English