pronunciation via cool internet gadgets

As per usual, I received a great many books for my birthday (I know, big surprise, right?), including The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Later, while discussing book-related things with my stepfather-in-law I began to say the author's full name, then promptly stopped myself. I was okay with Alfonso, and Casares was no problem, but Bioy? How do I pronounce Bioy? Bee-oy? Byoi? Something else entirely? I went with just Casares to keep the conversation moving, but that small ignorance on my part stayed in the back of my head the rest of the night.¹

That little incident was not an isolated event, either. Many times over the years I've wanted to mention an author who was relevant to the conversation at hand only to realize that, while I knew what his or her name looked like visually on the page, I was completely clueless as to how it actually sounded when spoken aloud. For example,

Barthelme: Bart-ul-me? Bart-helm? Barth-elm?

Goethe: Go-uth? Go-et? Goo-tuh?

Borges: Bor-gus? Bor-hees?

It's not like most of the names I wanted to pronounce could be looked up in the biographical section of the dictionary, either. Then last year the internet decided to give me a hand by launching a cool little website by the name of Forvo. Forvo works as a huge pronunciation guide where native speakers of various languages can come and submit mp3 clips demonstrating how to pronounce a given word. The usefulness of the site isn't limited to author's names, of course, but that's mainly what I've used it for.

Since I stumbled across it, Forvo has taught me that Borges is Bor-hays, Barthelme is Bar-thal-uh-may, and Goethe is . . . well, I doubt I'll ever feel like I'm pronouncing Goethe correctly, but I suppose I can't have everything.

¹ It's Bee-oy.

well will you look at that

There is a pattern I've slowly come to notice in which my age seems to increase by one year on a roughly annual basis. Today I have turned twenty-nine, and all is well.

Oh, and I wrote another review over at the Fill in the Gaps blog, this time on Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. You can read it here. McCarthy writes stark, brutal things, but the Old Testament themes he deals in transforms that violent content into a commentary on all the aspects of human nature most of us would rather ignore. My respect for the man and his prose grows with every novel I read, and I think it would be a shame if he isn't eventually awarded a Nobel on the order of Borges', Nabokov's, and Tolstoy's snubbings by the award committee.