Pronunciation of "Asperger"

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05 Dec 2010, 5:44 pm

Dr. Asperger was German and so his name likely rhymes with "burger" because the German language does not have a soft G like the Romance languages + English (due to the French influence on English). And that is how I hear his name pronounced by Americans. But whenever I see a video of someone from Britain, Australia, or New Zealand, they make it rhyme with "merger."

Am I correct in believing that it should rhyme with "burger?" And why is it consistently pronounced differently in America vs. the British Empire?

Ambivalence
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05 Dec 2010, 5:47 pm

I'm British and I pronounce it with a hard G. :wink:

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IvyMike
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05 Dec 2010, 5:53 pm

Ass Burgers is the correct pronunciation.

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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05 Dec 2010, 6:03 pm

theexternvoid wrote:

I always say "berger" never "burger".

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05 Dec 2010, 6:14 pm

My native language is German and I pronounce "Asperger" with the same kind of g-sound as in "burger". The first E is pronounced more like the first E in merger though, so it's more like a combination of what has been suggested by the OP. The word starts with an open A sound like in the British pronounciation of words like "dance" and "ask", not the more Ä/AE-like pronounciation most Americans seem to favour.
I will try to put my German pronounciation into letters that can be read by people whose native language is English in the way they are used to pronouncing those letters, but the actual pronounciation of some letters is a bit different in German, so I don't know whether I will get it right.

Aas-pare-ger

The stress should be on the first should be on the first syllable, I think, and the first and second syllable are more or less drawn together so there is no audible pause between them.

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Chronos
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05 Dec 2010, 6:43 pm

theexternvoid wrote:

Yes, you are correct, they pronounce it wrong in the UK...I'm not sure about Australia and NZ. But it has really just become a matter of I say "tomayto, you say tomahto" type things.

Except in Missouri where they all say tomaytah, and they call the state "Missourah" and they all say "potaytah". It must be the easiest state in the union to write poems in.

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05 Dec 2010, 6:44 pm

FluffyDog wrote:

I will try to put my German pronounciation into letters that can be read by people whose native language is English in the way they are used to pronouncing those letters, but the actual pronounciation of some letters is a bit different in German, so I don't know whether I will get it right.

Aas-pare-ger

That seems right. You could also write it Aas-pair-ger. The initial "a" could also be represented as "ah."

(I'm a native English speaker, but I also speak German.)

In any case, it should not rhyme with burger. It's one of these names, like Augustine and Nabokov, that no one pronounces correctly, and when you do pronounce it correctly, people think you are strange and/or being stuck up.

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05 Dec 2010, 6:49 pm

Chronos wrote:

Yes, you are correct, they pronounce it wrong in the UK....

Americans also pronounce it wrong.

Maybe they pronounce it correctly in Germany/Austria, but I'm not aware of any English speakers in the world who pronounce it correctly. Australians don't either.

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05 Dec 2010, 8:37 pm

IvyMike wrote:

Ass Burgers is the correct pronunciation.

That's how I first heard it so that's how I say it. Since then I've also heard the soft 'g' and also de-emphasising the 'as'.

(I'm Australian.)

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05 Dec 2010, 8:39 pm

IvyMike wrote:

Ass Burgers is the correct pronunciation.

That's how I first heard it so that's how I say it. Since then I've also heard the soft 'g' and also de-emphasising the 'as'.

(I'm Australian.)

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05 Dec 2010, 8:39 pm

IvyMike wrote:

Ass Burgers is the correct pronunciation.

That's how I first heard it so that's how I say it. Since then I've also heard the soft 'g' and also de-emphasising the 'as'.

(I'm Australian.)

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05 Dec 2010, 9:03 pm

I think the pronunciation is As-per-ger (G like going, gate, etc) , not As-bur-ger nor As-ber-ger

Quote:

Asperger syndrome or Asperger's syndrome (pronounced /ˈæspərɡərz/)

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05 Dec 2010, 9:31 pm

As - per (par) - jer

Shadi2
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05 Dec 2010, 9:49 pm

Coldkick wrote:

As - per (par) - jer

ˈæspərɡərz

According to IPA for english "g" is pronounced like the g in Gate, baG, etc

Wikipedia - IPA for English:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English

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05 Dec 2010, 11:25 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:

theexternvoid wrote:

I always say "berger" never "burger".

I pronounce both of those the same.

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05 Dec 2010, 11:29 pm

Chronos wrote:

Except in Missouri where they all say tomaytah, and they call the state "Missourah" and they all say "potaytah". It must be the easiest state in the union to write poems in.

Not true, at least with regards to the "all". I grew up in Missouri and I say both tomato and potato with the last syllable sounding like toe.

As for the name of the state, both "Missouree" and "Missourah" are quite common pronunciations in the state. Fairly equally common, from what I've read. (I can't vouch for the two pronunciations of tomato and potato, since those words just don't get the same attention as the state name does.)

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