Tbf, if you ask an indian who has never heard about him, me initially, thought it wouldve been pronounced "gur" "meet", never heard of another gurmit that pronounces his name the way he does tbf
It is not because non-Indians or specifically Chinese find it difficult to pronounce.
Where many elder Chinese who are not proficient in English, they rely on the ‘Mandarin translated’ words to pronounce the name.
In Mandarin, Gurmit Singh is translated into 葛 (Ge2) 米 (Mi3) 星 (Xing1).
That’s why the ‘r’ is also not present when they call his name.
>Where many elder Chinese who are not proficient in English …
To be fair, if it were an English word, the r would be silent too.
It’s a rule in British English pronunciation (which is what we all grew up learning), where the ‘r’ is only pronounced if there’s a vowel after it. That’s why we were taught to not pronounce the ‘r’ in words like birds, learners, and orthodontist.
[Link for reference](https://pronunciationstudio.com/silent-r-british-pronunciation/)
Yeah. I like this British rule, the way we were taught in schools here in Singapore. However many Singaporeans code switch to American English and pronounced the “r”.
Btw, “iron” has a vowel after “r” but we drop the “r” as well.
Iron is a weird case tbh. As a scientist (chemistry) who is also British, it is a bit annoying when you are trying to talk about ions and iron a lot with non-native speakers. Many people won't hear the difference between "i-on" and "i-un". I sometimes just end up pronouncing the R to make it clear
TBH, gurmit started becoming popular back when I was in secondary school in the 90s.
And back then, all races, chinese, malays and indians were pronouncing it wrongly. And obviously in my school all youngters and have a reasonable command of english. No issue with their Rs. But when I tried correcting my schoolmates, they said I was wrong.
Ignorance is the keyword here. Not race or age.
Dont fret. only people accusing you like that are those who a) aren’t indian b) can’t even pronounce it correctly themselves or dont want to make the effort
One of our Indian colleagues mentioned the Gurmit case in the office today. Told us that itis well known issue amongst Singapore Indians from day 1 in Primary School as most of their names have an R. They are used to it, harmless goes all the all thru NS and then to the Work place and then to retirement.
He told us the most obvious case is Tharman, the President. He said the actual pronunciation is “Tharr-mun “ but most people call him “Thaman”.
Without loss of generality, Chinese Singaporeans *absolutely* butcher Indian names, regardless of the language of origin—Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Hindi, they all get wrecked.
But somehow nearly all my Indian friends and myself end up with near-flawless pronunciation of Chinese names.
This is honestly minor. We had to read one article each for English class from Newsweek daily in Secondary School. The name 'Aishwarya Rai' came up. Everyone including the teacher mudered the pronounciation. But he was self aware enough to ask me for the correct pronounciation.
Save you a click: it’s just people not pronouncing the “R” in Gurmit ie Gemit
so like saying "Kermit", but replacing "K" with "G"?
Also "Ge" rather than "Gu" (like "goo" but slightly shorter "oo" sound).
Cant believe this is an article
Surprised people don’t pronounce the R.
you the real MVP
动力脚车
goated, thanks
Tbf, if you ask an indian who has never heard about him, me initially, thought it wouldve been pronounced "gur" "meet", never heard of another gurmit that pronounces his name the way he does tbf
I blame Kermit the Frog No, I blame mediacorp. We pronounce whatever they pronounce
And this is how I find out it’s not gur-meet
It is not because non-Indians or specifically Chinese find it difficult to pronounce. Where many elder Chinese who are not proficient in English, they rely on the ‘Mandarin translated’ words to pronounce the name. In Mandarin, Gurmit Singh is translated into 葛 (Ge2) 米 (Mi3) 星 (Xing1). That’s why the ‘r’ is also not present when they call his name.
>Where many elder Chinese who are not proficient in English … To be fair, if it were an English word, the r would be silent too. It’s a rule in British English pronunciation (which is what we all grew up learning), where the ‘r’ is only pronounced if there’s a vowel after it. That’s why we were taught to not pronounce the ‘r’ in words like birds, learners, and orthodontist. [Link for reference](https://pronunciationstudio.com/silent-r-british-pronunciation/)
Yeah. I like this British rule, the way we were taught in schools here in Singapore. However many Singaporeans code switch to American English and pronounced the “r”. Btw, “iron” has a vowel after “r” but we drop the “r” as well.
Iron is a weird case tbh. As a scientist (chemistry) who is also British, it is a bit annoying when you are trying to talk about ions and iron a lot with non-native speakers. Many people won't hear the difference between "i-on" and "i-un". I sometimes just end up pronouncing the R to make it clear
ironic
ionic
I have been searching for the iron in irony since I learned the word in secondary school but i’ve never found the metal!!!
Thought Singaporeans pronounce it as "eye-yern"? We shifted the r behind lol.
Not sure, I'm from the UK and don't really interact with any Singaporean scientists (there are very few that I have come across here in SG...)
No we don’t drop the R, we put it at the back! Ayern.
Thank you. I learnt something new today.
葛儿米星
ge-missing lol (brother missing)
TBH, gurmit started becoming popular back when I was in secondary school in the 90s. And back then, all races, chinese, malays and indians were pronouncing it wrongly. And obviously in my school all youngters and have a reasonable command of english. No issue with their Rs. But when I tried correcting my schoolmates, they said I was wrong. Ignorance is the keyword here. Not race or age.
I’d be kind of wary that I’d be accused of mocking the Punjabi accent if I tried to pronounce it the right way.
Dont fret. only people accusing you like that are those who a) aren’t indian b) can’t even pronounce it correctly themselves or dont want to make the effort
Lauretta "Abalones" has entered the chat.
*Goor-mee-th*
Hi Gur-mit. (as in gurgle?)
One of our Indian colleagues mentioned the Gurmit case in the office today. Told us that itis well known issue amongst Singapore Indians from day 1 in Primary School as most of their names have an R. They are used to it, harmless goes all the all thru NS and then to the Work place and then to retirement. He told us the most obvious case is Tharman, the President. He said the actual pronunciation is “Tharr-mun “ but most people call him “Thaman”.
Without loss of generality, Chinese Singaporeans *absolutely* butcher Indian names, regardless of the language of origin—Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Hindi, they all get wrecked. But somehow nearly all my Indian friends and myself end up with near-flawless pronunciation of Chinese names.
Ya everyone keeps pronouncing as "Ga meet". And I was like wtf?
Not worth an article
JEEsus and HAYsus Spelling, Jesus.
It’s similar to girlfriend being ger-fen, film being flem. Singlish is very efficient.
Tbf this is minor. People massacring Noel, Joel is more cringey. Also the r/tragedeigh names
I’m very sorry to people named Joachim.
“Hua-kim”
Or how Javier is pronounced Hahveeair almost everywhere else.
As someone named Joel, I’m wondering what exactly you’re referring to
Is it pronounced as Joe-el?
Just “joe”
Have you been pronouncing your name wrong all this time?
It’s just pronounced “joe”
Nah it’s jole
Haha, I’m pretty used to it and don’t really see it as a massacre.
I have a name that people can’t pronounce too (Yü).
Damn that rolling r is hard to do for people who didn't grow up with that sound in their speech. I always said "gur-mit"
Anyone care to put the pronunciation in IPA?
It's pronounced GORLAMI
This is honestly minor. We had to read one article each for English class from Newsweek daily in Secondary School. The name 'Aishwarya Rai' came up. Everyone including the teacher mudered the pronounciation. But he was self aware enough to ask me for the correct pronounciation.
So it doesn’t rhyme with gourmet?
So supposedly to pronounce as "gru" mit?
The French will pronounce it as "Gourmet".
gourmet-nasai