How do you pronounce "Asperger's?"
Projectile
Snowy Owl
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I tend to pronounce it with a very short, barely-there "A" (almost more like "uh" than "a") and a hard "G". Also, I stress the second syllable (so basically, "asPERger"). I don't know if it's meant to be pronounced that way, but it's what I grew up with and whenever I pronounce it like that people seem to know what I mean, so I'm quite happy pronouncing it like that.
I like the oxford way of saying it.
a-sper-gers
short vowel "a" and a hard "g" sound.
The Webster version sounds like "ass burgers" as if you can s**t hamburger out of your ass and if you could? you might be working for McDonnalds.
[img][800:688]http://static.fjcdn.com/large/pictures/99/ca/99ca62_176376.jpg[/img]
TheMikeFrom1980
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It annoys the hell out of me when I watch YouTube videos by English speakers and they say it with a soft "g". There is no soft g in the German language, except in loanwords (= words that were borrowed from other languages), mainly words of French origin. But this is a German name. It's pronounced with a hard g.
Asperger's Syndrome is named after the guy who discovered it. The German speaking Austrian Dr. Hans Asperger. But what was HE named after? Or what was his family line named after?
The question has relevance to how English speakers pronounce the name of the condition named after him.
In Britain both the hard G and the soft G pronunciations are common and are considered acceptable, as far as I know. But here in the US only the Guden Tag, or hard G, pronunciation is accepted, and you rarely hear the J pronunciation. And to me, an American, that J sound in the word sounds wrong as heck.
But here is the thing. Most surnames are either the name of your ancestor's profession, or are the word for some geographic place your ancestor came from.
There is a town called "asperg" in southern Germany. So if Hans Asperger's ancestors came from that place, or somewhere with a name like that, then the hard G (good) pronunciation is the only possible right one.
However...there is an actual word in the English language as "Asperger". It exists in both English and in German, with the same spelling. To "asperg" means "to sprinkle holy water during Catholic church rituals". In German the word is pronounced with a hard G, but in English its pronounced with the soft J sound.
Someone who does that task, of sprinkling holy water, is an "asperjer" in England, and an "Asperger" in the German speaking world, even though the spelling is the same both languages (with a "g").
So if the doctor's got his name from an ancestor who was given the name because he had the job of being a sprinkler of holy water then it would make sense to accept either pronunciation. If his ancestor was an "Asperger" in a church then the English soft G pronunciation would be an acceptable alternate pronunciation, even if the German speaking Austrian Dr. Hans Asperger himself pronounced his name with a German hard G because his name is the same word as the English word of the same meaning and spelling ergo you could be allowed to pronounce that word in the English way.
Last edited by naturalplastic on 21 Mar 2020, 8:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
dragonsanddemons
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I guess the easiest way to try to explain in writing how I say it is that I pretty much say "ass-burgers," except with a very distinct "p" instead of a "b" and kind of an "eh" sound after it. I can't think of any way to write out my pronunciation other than just separating it into syllables because to me, that's how it looks like it should be pronounced.
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-H. P. Lovecraft, "The Outsider"
The question has relevance to how English speakers pronounce the name of the condition named after him.
In Britain both the hard G and the soft G pronunciations are common and are considered acceptable, as far as I know. But here in the US only the Guden Tag, or hard G, pronunciation is accepted, and you rarely hear the J pronunciation. And to me, an American, that J sound in the word sounds wrong as heck.
But here is the thing. Most surnames are either the name of your ancestor's profession, or are the word for some geographic place your ancestor came from.
There is a town called "asperg" in southern Germany. So if Hans Asperger's ancestors came from that place, or somewhere with a name like that, then the hard G (good) pronunciation is the only possible right one.
However...there is an actual word in the English language as "Asperger". It exists in both English and in German, with the same spelling. To "asperg" means "to sprinkle holy water during Catholic church rituals". In German the word is pronounced with a hard G, but in English its pronounced with the soft J sound.
Someone who does that task, of sprinkling holy water, is an "asperjer" in England, and an "Asperger" in the German speaking world, even though the spelling is the same both languages (with a "g").
So if the doctor's got his name from an ancestor who was given the name because he had the job of being a sprinkler of holy water then it would make sense to accept either pronunciation. If his ancestor was an "Asperger" in a church then the English soft G pronunciation would be an acceptable alternate pronunciation, even if the German speaking Austrian Dr. Hans Asperger himself pronounced his name with a German hard G because his name is the same word as the English word of the same meaning and spelling ergo you could be allowed to pronounce that word in the English way.
In German (in Germany, Austria, Switzerland) it was customary to call people by the town they were from. Even by the farm they were from. Some even had a different family name as well but the name they were identified with and they kept was that of their town or their farm with adding an -er after the word or in case of women -erin. The name was usually derived from the male form, however.
The thing with the holy water (Aspergill, *not* Asperger) is not a person but the thing it was/is in and the person using it is called "Ministrant" and is usually a young boy. It is *not* a profession but boys who help the priest during mass. Sometimes it also was done by a "Diakon" who is also some kind of a priest. The act of it is called "Asperges". All of those words are pronounced with a hard g.
PS: Latin in German is pronounced as if those words were German.
ETA: I guess my point is that it's really irrelevant which of those two words the name was derived from as *both* of them are pronounced with a hard "g" in German.