Daddy Long Les Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 (edited) Hi, Can someone please tell me how to pronounce Wim's name correctly? Thank You! Les Edited September 11, 2015 by Daddy Long Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Wilson Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Why don't you ask him? Via his website, very simple! He's very approachable in my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Long Les Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Why don't you ask him? Via his website, very simple! He's very approachable in my experience. Thanks Steve. I've done as you have suggested. Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Wakker, the a pronounced in Dutch similar to that in arch in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Wakker, the a pronounced in Dutch similar to that in arch in English. And the Dutch "w", I'm told (by a friend who studied in the Netherlands), is neither the English "w" nor the English "v", but somewhere in between. But I'm pretty sure that Wim is used to hearing all variations and is unlikely to take offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Long Les Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Just got this from Wakker Concertinas - so now we all know!! "Wim is short for William (Wi [llia] m. Wakker is pronounced the same as Walker" Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Just got this from Wakker Concertinas - so now we all know!! "Wim is short for William (Wi [llia] m. Wakker is pronounced the same as Walker" Les "Wakker" is a Dutch and Afrikaans word meaning....."awake".......Yes, Wim is ...awake.... and hopefully working on one of my concertinas at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 (edited) Wakker is pronounced the same as Walker Hmm, it's probably easier as an explanation but it's not correct. Not when you're using the Dutch pronunciation of the name anyway. Edited September 11, 2015 by Peter Laban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Wakker is pronounced the same as Walker Hmm, it's probably easier as an explanation but it's not correct. Not when you're using the Dutch pronunciation of the name anyway. Well, he's chosen to live in America, so I guess he's decided that when in Rome America.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Well, he's chosen to live in America, so I guess he's decided that when in Rome America.. In that case the OP's question doesn't make a lot of sense as any (American-)English speaker could have read it out and given their own interpretation of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Well, he's chosen to live in America, so I guess he's decided that when in Rome America.... In that case the OP's question doesn't make a lot of sense as any (American-)English speaker could have read it out and given their own interpretation of it. Made sense for Les to ask it, because when he did, he didn't know what Wim has since said or what I've suggested (above). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceemonster Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 ok, let's spin this out, now, . . . . what else do wim wakker and wim wenders have in common???..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham S Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Wakker, the a pronounced in Dutch similar to that in arch in English. And the Dutch "w", I'm told (by a friend who studied in the Netherlands), is neither the English "w" nor the English "v", but somewhere in between. Quite correct. A Dutch friend of mine says Dutch isn't so much a language as a congenital laryngeal affliction. Quite a few letter combinations in Dutch don't sound as you'd expect - for example "huis" (house) is pronounced "house", and "koeken" (cakes) is pronounced "kooken" - the origiin of "cookies" in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) Quite correctI am not sure I'd agree. But we can argue about this for another while and not get anywhere. Instead, to get back to the OP's question, listen to these youtube videos for an average (ie non-regional and non-posh) pronunciation : Wim and Wakker. Edited September 13, 2015 by Peter Laban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglo-Irishman Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Quite a few letter combinations in Dutch don't sound as you'd expect - for example "huis" (house) is pronounced "house" ... Got to be careful here! The statement that "huis" is pronounced "house" is strictly true only when it's an Ulsterman who's pronouncing "house". Someone from Belfast, or Co. Down or Co. Antrim - not so sure even about the West of Ulster ... Anyway, Englishmen, Americans and Southern Irishmen don't pronounce "house" anything like "huis". Let this little thread be a lesson to all of us as musicians. It shows how difficult and risky it can be to try to pronounce words in a foreign language that happens to use the same alphabet. And it reminds us how foolhardy it is to try to play music from a foreign country or genre that happens to use the same musical notation. We talk of being able to "read a foreign language" - which is easier than speaking it - but we usually mean "reading silently for comprehension". When it comes to reading aloud, it's a different matter. To read Dutch, for instance, you need to have heard and internalised the "noises" that Dutch people make when they see certain letter combinations. The "noises" that you make when you see these letter combinations in your language just aren't Dutch! Same with "reading music". You may comprehend what's going on in a score, but to play a Strathspey, for instance, aloud, you have to know the "noises" that Scots musicians make when they're playing one, especially how they treat dotted quavers/semiquavers. Otherwise it just won't sound Scottish. Cheers, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) Couldn't agree more, John. People tend to refer to the sounds they know and 'huis' has a sound that is not comparable to anything an English speaker would be accustomed to. Dutch pronunciation 'huis' Edited September 13, 2015 by Peter Laban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Couldn't agree more, John. People tend to refer to the sounds they know and 'huis' has a sound that is not comparable to anything an English speaker would be accustomed to. In the same manner I feel introducing a 'v' sound into the pronunciation of the Dutch 'w' resembles caricature Germans in English movies ('Ve ask Ze Quvestions!') but doesn't really resemble what a Dutch (or German) speaker would come out with. Reminds me of myself trying to make a joke with a pun on the name of my Chinese office mate. He wasn't offended; he didn't understand at all. The word I was matching to his name was spelled the same in English transliteration, but Chinese languages are tonal, and those two words had completely different tones. I might as well have tried equate "cape" and "cap", "power" and "poor", or maybe even "clink" and "clog". ...doesn't really resemble what a Dutch (or German) speaker would come out with. Still, returning to the context of the OP's question, Wim would have no trouble understanding such an attempt and probably wouldn't bother to even notice any "imperfection". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Moran Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Hello When I was growing up in Dublin everybody had a nickname which was usually based on their given name. Anybody whose surname began with " Mac" were usually called either Macker or Wacker (phonetically Whacker). You can hear this name in the song "the craic was ninety in the Isle of Man". Whenever I see a word that even remotely resembles the word Wacker I think of those nicknames. I have no problem so with pronouncing Wakker as Wacker . Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now