Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
Firstly you must be familiar with the name. If you are not, you can;t know.
And this was only an example. There are thousands of surnames which you
do not know, and from hearing, you will not be able to know, what it is. The
matter is more complicated, when people spell it differently. Total mess.
Rather you are obtuse than me, becasue you cannot get a simple fact.
You really shouldn't speak about things about which you know nothing. Colbert is not at all a rare name in the U.S., especially not in areas where the Irish settled, as is the case with New York, or where there are a lot of descendants of the original English settlers, like the south and New England. I actually happen to know two families with that surname, and they certainly pronounce that "t".
https://surnames.behindthename.com/name/colbert/top
Here's another funny one: Weiner. A recently disgraced political personality carried that surname. He made a habit of sending nude photos of his "appendage" to women by cell phone. Some newsmen would pronounce it "weener", like an alternate word for hot dog, and, ironically, the male sexual organ, and others like "whiner", the word for a chronic babyish complainer. Either way it was good for some chuckles. It was probably too much fun to just ask him how he pronounced his name.
Like I said, most Americans couldn't care less what Europeans think of this habit, and that includes me.