"Asperger's"

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Maybe I am over estimating the intelligence of the American public. Lol!

But many medical conditions have possessive names like asperger's because they are named after the doctor who discovered the condition. So thinking that aspergers is named after some guy named asperger is something even an 8th grade drop out might deduce. And English names are also often place names. And the same with other languages like Italian ( Da Vinci, Del Vecchio). "De" mean "of".

But there is even another issue.

In Britain: half the time that "aspergers" is heard in conversation its pronounced with a soft G ( asperJer's), and both hard and soft G pronounciations are considered correct in the UK (but not here in the USA).

In the US you NEVER hear it pronounced with the soft G (j sound).

Who is correct? Brits or Americans?

The Austrian doctor himself pronounced his name with the hard G. And both his name, and the condition named for him are only pronounced with the hard G (G as in "good")in the German speaking part of Europe ( Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, etc), and NEVER with the J sound.

So Americans pronounce it the way the doctor himself did. So that would seem to support the American preference.

HOWEVER:

The word "asperger" is an actual word (a common noun) in the English language.

An "asperger" is someone who sprinkles holy water in communion at a Catholic Church.

And in English "asperger" "to asperge" etc are all pronounced with the J sound.

So if Hans Asperger was named after an ancestor who was known for sprinkling holy water- then it would be correct to pronounce his name asperJer in English. Though the "asperger" (the common noun) is also only pronounced with the hard G sound in German.

Because it is pronounced with the J sound in English one could argue that its okay to anglicize the word for the medical condition with a J sound.

However: there is a town in southern Germany called "Asperg" (pronounced with the hard G sound like Good) . And the doctor might be named after an ancestor who came from that town 500 years ago or whenever. If so then there is no reason to call him 'Dr. AsperJer' in English.

But that's assuming that the town itself is named from a derivation of the local dialect variant of "burg" ("As" plus "burg") meaning town.

The town itself might be named for holy water.

So its a conundrum!

I doubt that 90+percent of the people anywhere who have heard of Aspergers know the backstory. Even if the Brits mispronounce the name, their mispronunciation is not being used as a tactic to bully and deny that people have a condition. Therefore there are not to many British Aspies that dissociate themselves from the label due to the negative associations related to the mispronouncing of Hans Aspergers last name (although some dissociate themselves from Aspergers for other reasons) .

I have never seen it written like that. I have seen "assburger" or something like that but not with a p and a b. I cannot think why anyone would write it like that.

Ok I feel like I am going crazy because to me, the British one sounds more like "ass-burger" than the American one on this link. Also, I say it more like the British one because that's how Canadians say it (and we are close to the USA here so we usually say things more or less like Americans), and I have only ever heard it said like the American one on your link on a British film called "Salmon Fishing in Yemen" (not a good movie- I do not recommend it at all!). So that link is opposite of what I would think.

pronunciation

Are there people who pronounce both "p" and "b" when they say Asperger's? That seems like it would be a quite awkward thing to say.

Maybe folks who spell it that way think that the condition is caused by eating sandwiches made from ground up poisonous snakes in paddies between two sesame seed buns!

In fact...isn't that how Cleopatra died?

It's due to the fact most English speaking people, roll the P into soft neutral P, because is wedged between an S and vowel.

Even my doctor who I believe is German, says it with the neutral soft P sound.


if you write it as Asperger, it would be pronounced with the neutral soft B, due to it being wedged between S and a vowel.

Asperger = Asperger in pronunciation in modern English!

If someone says it proper with the hard distinct P sound, then you know they come from strong German background.

https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab ... n/asperger

Even Google's translation software pronounces it Asperger/Assberger/Asperger!
Though if you delete the first E, the S and P are pronounced hard.

Why does English sound this way? The many key sounds in the English language have been shifting since World War II ended.
Each region is experiencing their own shifts.
The U.S. experiencing the Northern Cities Vowel shift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_C ... owel_Shift

The U.S. South is doing it's own kind of shift, different from the North.
The East Coast is doing another away, as is the West and California
Canada is the shifting certain sounds too.
Then you have India, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, etc... all experience their own unique shifts.

The most of the AEIOU sounds are shifting, which impacts the other pronounced letters in the syllable.
Also S and P sounds are also shifting as well.

This also means Merry and Marry are pronounced the same in many parts of the world.

It is. I really cannot pronounce Asperger's to save my life. It's almost as bad as me trying to say "crisps". Don't get me started on that. No idea why, but things with "sp" trip me up - unless it starts with sp (like spelling, I can say that pretty normally). As soon as you put extra letters in front of it is when the problem starts.

I have trouble with "sp" as well, also "st". That's one reason why I liked German so much, as "st" is pronounced like "sht" and "sp" like "shp" which is for me much easier to say. They have a different character ß for the sharp s sound.