Wondering how to pronunce a certain name?

[shootingstar]

ANd it is grating to the ear to hear Americans pronounce Iraq as "EYE-RACK". Prior to the war, I've always understood as 'EER-RACK". Hopefully the Iraquis themselves, have stuck to their own pronounciation when they speak English and used prior to war. I'd rather follow pronounciation of the originating country for the name itself. Americanization of original foreign words isn't necessarily the good thing. Other non-English languages slide a number of vowels and consonants together or have accent/tonal inflections that are miniscule but highly critical that it can alter the meaning of word if enunciated incorrectly.

No, Oak, we follow the pronounication of what the majority of Iraquis themselves when they speak English. So the big question was how they pronounced "Iraq" in English before the war existed, before many Americans even knew a place like Iraq existed in their minds.

By the way, the French spelling of 'Jeanne' is genuinely a legal name can be/ is used by someone whose first language is English. Therefore it's actually more graceful to pronounce it as the French did if one wishes to use that spelling.

If people in Tawain ask me to address the name of their country as Tawain, instead of China...which a highly loaded political perspective, then I would bend to their wishes. If people in Hong Kong, prefer to refer Hong Kong instead of China, if one is there, then I would adjust my name reference of their "territory" accordingly. I am not the citizen/resident of that area and have no right to impose linguistically what I believe is the correct English term.

For names of people and names of countries, it's best that the correct English pronounciation should be led by the owners of that name. If not, then default to whatever "dialect" version, whatever pronounciation deviations occur.

We ask immigrants to master English so they can compete in for educational spots, jobs and to make themselves understood for social acceptance. There is alot of pressure to assimilate to the English-speaking world.. at a high price which is loss of the mother tongue...which leads to generational divides/gaps/serious communication conflicts. And by the same token, from us, as dominant English speakers, it can't be too much to ask us to integrate proper pronounciation of their names as they would prefer of English /unilingual speakers.