How do you pronounce 'Gries'
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Jon Gries
jayg_58 — 17 years ago(October 25, 2008 05:24 PM)
The Grieses began immigrating to the US from Germany in the 1800s. Most were farmers and settled in the upper mid-west, across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. They've spread since then, but Jon(athan)'s father, Tom was from Chicago, right in the middle.
So my question is: why does he pronounce his name "Greis", which is the standard American mispronunciation? In German, "ie" is always pronounced "E", and "ei" is always pronounced "I". Yes, if it's your name, you can pronounce is any way you like. He could pronounce it "Smith", but that doesn't make it correct. Maybe the family got tired of having it mispronounced and just 'went with it'.
I asked a woman who mispronounced my name "Greis" one day - 'why'? She replied without blinking: "french fries". Hmmm? Best reason I ever heard outside of a bad education.
Just in case any of you 'fans' wanted to know.
Jonathan Gries - and I'm older. -
Veronica_Echolls — 17 years ago(January 23, 2009 03:30 PM)
lol Yeah, the first time I heard it pronounced that way I was like, "Bwah?!?!"
Everyone just pronounces things however they feel nowadays (and it's his own name so he can do whatever he wants) but it sure makes me hesitate when I read someones name for the first time whether I'm pronouncing it correctly or not. -
Paranoid_Obsessive — 16 years ago(May 13, 2009 08:09 PM)
"Yes, if it's your name, you can pronounce is any way you like. He could pronounce it "Smith", but that doesn't make it correct."
The problem is that language in general evolves over time - which tends to undercut the assumption of One True Absolute when it comes to pronunciation rules and grammar. This is especially true when you're dealing with a word (or, in this case, a name) crossing from one language to another.
In essence, when a name from one culture (and/or language) is introduced to another, it's perfectly valid (and very common) for the pronunciation to gradually shift to meet the rules of the new language. Quite simply, how a given name is meant to be pronounced in German rapidly tends to become meaningless if you're dealing with someone (or multiple generations of someones) who exclusively speaks English.
Cultural assumptions also play a strong role. As a fun little example, "St. John" is often pronounced "sin-jin" in many English-speaking areas, but very few Americans would EVER pronounce it that way without being told to do so in advance (and, in fact, would likely question just how the hell someone could ever get "sin-jin" out of "Saint John"). And then there's "slurred" names like Sinclair (which started out as Saint Clair). And we won't even get into the mess that is most first names as they leapfrog across linguistic boundaries and mutate beyond recognition.
Hell, his FIRST name is itself a corruption of its original form as well!
Sure, we could argue that language SHOULDN'T drift like that, but then again, if language didn't shift, we'd all still be speaking something along the lines of Proto-Indo-European or something similar. There's nothing particularly sacred about surnames that says they must remain unchanged even though every other aspect of language mutates around them.
