Saturday, October 29, 2005

the pitfalls of the written name!

OMG I forgot to say! well it didn't occur to me because I know who I am. but somebody asked (intelligent person), and I am not a midge! I am a migg.
thought I'd better sort that out quick.
I remember reading an article by either Marion Zimmer Bradley or CJ Cherryh discussing readers' ways of pronouncing her characters' names and she phonetically spelled one I was particlularly fond of and Oh dear I'd got it wrong. I had to rethink the whole character.
Barney says one reason he doesn't like reading SF is because he can't get the names right in his head. (the other reason is he's a non-fiction reader by preference)
I've never been able to cope with Ralph pronounced Rafe either.
I went out with a bloke for weeks once before I realised he was a Jon, not a John. I had to rethink him too.















they don't make chimneys like that any more.

8 comments:

At 11:33 PM, Blogger Fred said...

Very clever - have you been using a liquify tool perchance?

 
At 12:12 AM, Blogger mig bardsley said...

Now that really would, be clever, in fact I must look that up...no it's really like that..a castle in Suffolk somewhere!

 
At 12:34 AM, Blogger Fred said...

It all looks a bit iffy to me but I suppose stranger things are true.

Was Jon any different just because he dropped his aitches?

 
At 1:04 AM, Blogger mig bardsley said...

I just feel a person who's carried Jonathan around with him all his life will be different from one who's only had to carry John!

 
At 1:31 AM, Blogger Fred said...

But is it not just that being called Jon, as shortened from Jonathon, is more to do with a general tendency by people to shorten names where possible, even if only through laziness. Very often it is due to familiarity. Parents usually start it when you are a baby even though they gave you the long name in the first place. My own name is a classic example: christened Frederick, called Freddie by everyone when I was young, then Fred when I was an adult. I don't think I would be in any way different if I had always been called Frederick. Do you think I am different now you know this about me?

 
At 2:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the chimney. I guess they used to do that sort of design in Russia. I guess that makes more of the bricks hold heat longer or something like that. Good pic!

 
At 6:26 PM, Blogger mig bardsley said...

No no Fred..you can be christened what ever you like and it wuldn't make any diference to me at all! Promise!
I rethunk him but we stayed together for a year before going separate ways.
Besides, I assumed you had been christened Frederick...a fine name! (you sure it wasn't Frederico? :))

 
At 6:56 PM, Blogger Fred said...

Born and bred in Yorkshire so definitely no 'o' on the end.

 

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