Pronunciation guide to flute makers

[cocusflute]

Rob said

Vallely, upon learning the price of a keyed model of same, once pronounced the maker's name "Patrick Oil-well."

Just for the record, Olwell's prices are behind the curve of many of today's top (and some not-so-top) makers. His 6-key blackwood is still under $3,000 -- less than Grinter's by a long shot and still less than Hammy or Wilkes charges. He runs his shop very much like a co-op and pays his cohorts very well.

The perception is that American makers charge more because they are American. How lucky for us that the policies of our predatory government are not endorsed by our national flute-makers.

If you're in the E.U. the prices for American flutes are at an all-time low. How lucky for you.

[rama]

rama is pronounced ramlamadingdong

[Rob Sharer]

Spot on, Cocus. I'm a long-time Olwell player/fan, and I agree that his prices are lower than they probably could or should be. My anecdote dates from many years ago, when the exchange rate wasn't so favorable, and we flute-players were even less aware of how good we have it. One can purchase a top-of-the-range, ne-plus-ultra wooden flute for less than some professional violinists spend to buy a case.

I thought all of this over before I wrote my original post, but decided to rely on the yarn-spinner's creed:

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!

Rob

[johnkerr]

I'm sure there are quite a few people out there who, when informed of the wait time to acquire one, just said "Oh, well..." and moved on to acquire a flute from someone else.

[pmcallis]

Ah, well, too bad for them
Paul

[michael c]

There's a Belfast flute maker, whose (is that wrong too?) name I have heard being pronounced "Samurai".

[Casey Burns]

My wife Nancy Ball and I were a little perplexed at first when contemplating marriage, as far as last names are concerned. You see, "Ball" and "Burns" just do not hyphenate well. So we ended up keeping our original names. But we have considered alternatives, drawing upon our family histories and last names. These names includes Lews, Withington, Samek, Hackett as in Buddy, Reynolds and my middle name McLain, which was mispelled - it should be Maclean as I am part Maclean of Duart according to my father, though I am 1/8th Czech from the Samek side of the family. However, the one last name that Nancy and I agreed upon as a possibility that I would then stamp on my flutes would be an unusual one, I think also Scottish. Unfug.

If there are any Unfugs out there we are probably related. How is it pronounced besides the obvious? I've heard of a Charles Unfug somewhere in Colorado, and that is about it. If you are an Unfug, let me know - I have some pictures of one ancestral couple named "Charles and Urfa Unfug" - though my disgusted sister who is the self appointed family archivist pointed out that what we misread as "Urfa" was really "Wife". Thus I now call my wife Nancy by her name Urfa occasionally.

Casey Mclain Burns Unfug and Urfa

[Nanohedron]

Doin' some Googling at the moment...Haven't found too much on Unfug, yet, but there's this:

http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Unfug

[Cubitt]

Casey Mclain Burns Unfug and Urfa

You poor sod!

If you change the stamp on your flutes, will the "C. Burns" on mine increase its value? Or will I have to wait 100 years before anyone cares?

Just wondered.

[Aanvil]

I dunno... a B&B flute might catch on.

"I have a couple fabulous Ball Burns. Would you care to see them?"

[Casey Burns]

It figures that Unfug means nonsense. My family is pretty wacko.

Casey

[Terry McGee]

I think I'm pretty easily dealt with in English, but if rendered in Irish I start to resemble a string of vowels: Maccaiodh, or MacAodh. We were so poor we couldn't afford consonants ....

I might have to do something about my given name. The chap next door is also called Terry. Just met the chap who's interested in the block on the other side. Guess what his name is ......

So maybe my next flute stamp should say Liam Turloch MacAodh, Malua Bay!

Terry

[BMFW]

There's a Belfast flute maker, whose (is that wrong too?) name I have heard being pronounced "Samurai".

I knew a Belfast man called Tom Murray who throughout his entire working life was referred to as Tommy Rae. I don't think he was any relation to Samurai!

[talasiga]

NOTE: In this post, stuff I put in square brackets is an attempt to render that stuff in Harvard-Kyoto convention for the application of Roman script as a phonetic system. The convention was agreed as a way to script Sanskrit phonics as accurately as possible without using the difficult phonetic script or other scripts requiring excessive use of diacritics.

Gilles Léhart is hard to explain, the french "G" has neither english nor german equivalent. "Jill" or "jeel" is not too far, but the "j" is not attacked the same way: it's a "j", attacked like a "z".

Léhart is something like "lay-ar", "h" is never pronounced in french.

.......

Les francais? Why should we bend over backwards for them?
Why should we pronounce Paris [peRis] as Paris [pari]
or France [frens] as France [froNs]
when they have pronounced
London [landan] as Laundry
and the holy River Ganga [gaGA] as Ganges [goNz]
giving rise to the now extant anglocentric variation [genjis] ?

I will talk flutes in a minute.

[talasiga]

Before launching a pronunciation guide for "bansuri" let me begin with some flute makers, who are as guilty as anyone else of pronouncing things differently to how things may be pronounced in their original language. (PLEASE NOTICE how I didn't say "guilty of pronouncing incorrectly". I dleberately did not say that. We can discuss that later if you like. )

HARVARD-KYOTO renderings for Terry McGee

Southern English, Australian and Colonial English pronunciation = [teRi magI]
Scottish = [terI maghI]
Irish = [terI megI]

These categories are based on PRAGMATIC GENERALISATIONS, I admit that. I know there would be more than one Irish, Scottish or American pronunciation type. Any comments?

How about
Southern USA
Mexican
California
Cornwall (calling SS!)
etc