NG - Pronounciation ?

[the lynx]

Same as before:
"You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends. "

If you go to Vietnam, you will only hear 'NG-ween'. Maybe a bit more 'NG-wen' in the south (or a cross between the two, the primary difference being the vowel's pronunciation, not the 'NG' part.)

Quite possible .. as I bumped into another Vietnam Guy, Phuong - he says "Call me FONG" is that so ?? hah .. Maybe living in US, he may have been converted

I can attest to that. Ph- is pronounced at F-. A good Vietnamese family friend's name is Phuoc... And we had so much problem there.

By the way I didn't know Nguyen is pronounced as NG-ween, all my life I pronounced it as NG-yen or NG-yin...

[zzm9980]

Same as before:
"You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends. "

If you go to Vietnam, you will only hear 'NG-ween'. Maybe a bit more 'NG-wen' in the south (or a cross between the two, the primary difference being the vowel's pronunciation, not the 'NG' part.)

Quite possible .. as I bumped into another Vietnam Guy, Phuong - he says "Call me FONG" is that so ?? hah .. Maybe living in US, he may have been converted

I can attest to that. Ph- is pronounced at F-. A good Vietnamese family friend's name is Phuoc... And we had so much problem there.

By the way I didn't know Nguyen is pronounced as NG-ween, all my life I pronounced it as NG-yen or NG-yin...

I've heard it all over and everything in between, but my post is from the source As long as you don't say it like I recall a high-school teacher in Chicago saying it to a classmate "New-jee-an", I think most will be OK.

[zzm9980]

Well, I had a friend who's surname was "Ng", and it was pronounced "nnn" (g was silent)

Like saying "mmmmmm" when you find something yummy, but with an "n" instead, and shorter.

You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends.

My wife's name (one of the most common Vietnamese female names) has an Ng for both her surname (Nguyen - pronounced NG-ween, not "win" for you Americans!) and her given name. I've had pronunciation practice by fire

No, I didn't mishear.. he was of Chinese background by the way. Also, I used to attend a mostly Asian church, where we actually had several others also with the same surname. They also pronounced it the same way.

I'm aware Vietnamese pronounce 'ng' in nguyen differently. Is the person actually Vietnamese?

My wife? With the Vietnamese name? Yes, she's actually Vietnamese.

My Chinese teacher taught me 'ng' the same way as it's said by my wife. However, I think the trouble with Nguyen and Nguyet, Tuyet, and other Vietnamese names is actually in the "uye" pronunciation, especially when following 'ng', and with all the different tones.

[zzm9980]

, all my life I pronounced it as NG-yen or NG-yin...

The "W" has a bit of a "y" in it too, it all blends together. Maybe you could say "NG-wyeen" is a bit more accurate.

[QRM]

I have a number of Ng friends and its always pronounced ung as in sung a song without the S

[Splatted]

You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends.

My wife's name (one of the most common Vietnamese female names) has an Ng for both her surname (Nguyen - pronounced NG-ween, not "win" for you Americans!) and her given name. I've had pronunciation practice by fire

No, I didn't mishear.. he was of Chinese background by the way. Also, I used to attend a mostly Asian church, where we actually had several others also with the same surname. They also pronounced it the same way.

I'm aware Vietnamese pronounce 'ng' in nguyen differently. Is the person actually Vietnamese?

My wife? With the Vietnamese name? Yes, she's actually Vietnamese.

No, not your wife.. I was asking the original poster who is meeting Mr/Ms Ng

My Chinese teacher taught me 'ng' the same way as it's said by my wife. However, I think the trouble with Nguyen and Nguyet, Tuyet, and other Vietnamese names is actually in the "uye" pronunciation, especially when following 'ng', and with all the different tones.

Now that you mention it - it wasn't Mandarin. My friend spoke Cantonese.

[Splatted]

I have a number of Ng friends and its always pronounced ung as in sung a song without the S

and the g wasn't silent?

[zzm9980]

My Chinese teacher taught me 'ng' the same way as it's said by my wife. However, I think the trouble with Nguyen and Nguyet, Tuyet, and other Vietnamese names is actually in the "uye" pronunciation, especially when following 'ng', and with all the different tones.

Now that you mention it - it wasn't Mandarin. My friend spoke Cantonese.

And now that I dusted off an old text book, 'ng' is only a final in Mandarin. (Only at the end of words, not beginning or alone)

Further research (Ok, just wikipedia) show that it is just the Cantonese and Hakka version of the surname 'Wu'. (Just like Tan is Chen in Mandarin)
So makes sense that your friend is Cantonese. In Vietnamese, this surname is 'Ngo'.

[BigSis]

I had a friend who was a Nguyen - she used to pronounce it a bit like nooyen or newyen.

She was Vietnamese but had lived in the UK for most of her life - maybe she'd altered the pronunciation a bit because people had trouble with it.

[sundaymorningstaple]

There is a considerable difference between the way a North Vietnamese and a South Vietnamese pronounce Nguyen. It almost sounds like two different words. Between 18 months in country and 2.5 years in the Vietnamese Refugee camps from 88 to 91. I've heard it pronounced both ways on a daily basis from the natives themselves. While I don't agree with the pronunciations on Wiki, the are both reasonably close to what I remember back in the day....

Northern: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ect%29.ogg

Southern: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Nguyen.ogg

[Travailes]

Well, I had a friend who's surname was "Ng", and it was pronounced "nnn" (g was silent)

Like saying "mmmmmm" when you find something yummy, but with an "n" instead, and shorter.

You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends.

My wife's name (one of the most common Vietnamese female names) has an Ng for both her surname (Nguyen - pronounced NG-ween, not "win" for you Americans!) and her given name. I've had pronunciation practice by fire

No, I didn't mishear.. he was of Chinese background by the way. Also, I used to attend a mostly Asian church, where we actually had several others also with the same surname. They also pronounced it the same way.

I'm aware Vietnamese pronounce 'ng' in nguyen differently. Is the person actually Vietnamese?

As far as I know they are Singaporean.
Been practising following the advice and wife asked if I had developed a speech impediment !

[sundaymorningstaple]

You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends.

My wife's name (one of the most common Vietnamese female names) has an Ng for both her surname (Nguyen - pronounced NG-ween, not "win" for you Americans!) and her given name. I've had pronunciation practice by fire

No, I didn't mishear.. he was of Chinese background by the way. Also, I used to attend a mostly Asian church, where we actually had several others also with the same surname. They also pronounced it the same way.

I'm aware Vietnamese pronounce 'ng' in nguyen differently. Is the person actually Vietnamese?

As far as I know they are Singaporean.
Been practising following the advice and wife asked if I had developed a speech impediment !

AAaaaahhhhh! there's the problem in a nutshell. If they are Singaporean they probably don't know how to pronounce it correctly either. That is why the PRCs in China cannot understand sinderan and the west cannot understand singlish. Things like wif for with, tree for three, and a thousand other incorrect pronunciations in both languages.

[Splatted]

You probably mis-heard, or he anglicized the pronunciation for his western friends.

My wife's name (one of the most common Vietnamese female names) has an Ng for both her surname (Nguyen - pronounced NG-ween, not "win" for you Americans!) and her given name. I've had pronunciation practice by fire

No, I didn't mishear.. he was of Chinese background by the way. Also, I used to attend a mostly Asian church, where we actually had several others also with the same surname. They also pronounced it the same way.

I'm aware Vietnamese pronounce 'ng' in nguyen differently. Is the person actually Vietnamese?

As far as I know they are Singaporean.
Been practising following the advice and wife asked if I had developed a speech impediment !

haha.. which means their background can be anything.

I would just ask them when you introduce yourself.

eg, "Hi I'm ......... It's great to finally meet you in person. One thing my wife/friend/colleague and I have been wondering is how your name is pronounced - how do I address you?"

[thismyvoice]

Splatted got it right. Another example is to pronounce the "N" in the word "Next".

[Travailes]

Chap told me it was pronounced Ung - which I think was one of the predictions on here. Ta.