without "stumbling" over your name in my head.
Our OLD good friend here Gilles de Prevoisin has a name that most folks would pronounce as GIL-LESS or GILL... but it is actually pronounced more like a woman's name as in JILL. When he first called me at home and said it was "Jill" from the Xweb forum I had no idea who the hell HE was. HA!
BTW... his ancestry is French and South American... living in the Tustin California area working for a Japanese company and selling reconditioned aircraft parts to and from Mexico. I know for one he speaks fluent Spanish, his English is heard in a thick French accent, I think he may also speak French and Portuguese... and he's an American citizen.
As I could never understand what he really does or have seen him do it... I firmly believe he is a CIA of FBI agent working under-cover! HA!
I love learning the heritage of folks and many have deep roots coming from all over this planet. I grew up being asked all the time... "Heya boy, whatza you name?"
I'd say "Anthony"... and they usually responded with, "OK Tony, go sit over 'dere..." They would also assume I was Italian... but actually I was born right here in the good old USA... and consider myself an American... just like I consider all people heritage as where they were born FIRST, and their genealogical heritage from where there parents were born... I generally leave out the "ethnicity" aspect all together as it just confuses things... HA!
So back to "Anthony"... I think I always pronounced it with THREE syllables like AN-THO-NY but if anyone, mostly family members from the Northeastern States called me... it was generally in TWO syllables as in ANT-NY!
My 3 year old Stage II Autistic grandson also has Apraxia (trouble speaking) and is really coming out of his shell and doing very well... We PRACTICE our words by me asking him to repeat what I say and I started one time saying, "Anthony, say MY..." to which he responded, My, NAME... Name, IS... is, ANTHONY... Ant'ny!
HA!... I see a trend going full circle now... and his heritage is part Irish too... along with British, Swedish, Armenian, and Italian! He's actually just a plain old American though... just like his Papa!
Hope you enjoyed the story... and thanks for taking the time with me. Welcome as well... to the insanity!