Meet Bertie!

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this isn't too far OT, but I had to share. I have a new puppy! He is a black miniature poodle. I have been on the waiting list for him for over a year and the only name I ever really considered was Bertram. Bertie for short. Of course since I'm American and live in America, I can't actually pronounce it quite right without affecting a British accent, so everyone will always call him, "Birdie." But I have decided I am OK with that. My other poodle's name is Amelie, so I'm already used to having to over explain dog names to everyone in the world. I wouldn't think Amelie would be that hard but it is quite difficult apparently.

But yes, I wanted this puppy to be an affable, happy go lucky sort of fellow, which seems to be working out so far. He's quite noisy too. Perhaps a bit feistier and more demanding than his namesake.

As soon as he gets scruffy enough I'll give him a haircut and clean up those whiskers. No mustache for young Bertram. Surely a sartorial misstep for poodles.

For a registered name I'm thinking either Gigi's Smart Little Chap (Gigi is the breeder), or Gigi's Sunny Disposish. Not that it matters a whole lot, since he's getting fixed asap and thus shall forever remain one of nature's bachelors. Probably for the best since he keeps running headfirst into the furniture.

Comments

[trista-zevkia.livejournal.com]

Might be ot, but it's still far cuter than it should be;) bu, Puppies! Put him on a piano keyboard and see what he does! He'll mature, but be very wild without the steadying influence of a distinguished grey and black cat;)

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

the steadying influence of a distinguished grey and black cat;)


Seconded!

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Yeahhhh.... Not gonna happen. When I was internally debating giving the puppy a name that I can't actually pronounce I considered Reggie as a possible alternative. But I don't want a pet that is both extremely clever and manipulative so that he always gets his own way.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"But I don't want a pet that is both extremely clever and manipulative so that he always gets his own way."

You should never get a cat :). Or a child ;). I speak from experience, LOL.

[67.livejournal.com]

puppies are never OT. never. he's soo cute, and I totally empathise with affecting an English accent after naming things Bertie. my ukulele is called that ;p

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

LOL the cat in your icon looks so bored!

[67.livejournal.com]

lmao I found out that that's his angry face ;p

[hobbit-kittens.livejournal.com]

Awww! Poodle puppies are the best! They're like little wiggly sheep.

(What a coincidence. My kitty's name is Amelie and no one gets it but my roommate and my friend from Switzerland.)

[mxdp.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww

[gini-baggins.livejournal.com]

Cuteness :DD

When I have the space, money and time I'm so going to get an Irish Wolfhound and a black Great Dane and call them Bertie and Reg <<<<3

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

Well, I've got a tuxedo cat named Jeeves, so maybe your puppy and my cat can be long-distance pals.

[charismaz.livejournal.com]

Awww he is so cute!! Sunny Disposish would be an amazing registered name.

(do americans really not know how to pronounce a crisp "t"?)

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

It's not the T that's the problem, it's the soft British R. If I called him Bert there would be no problem (except that I was calling him Bert). All I can think of to properly explain is that kind of silent h Helena Bonham Carter slips into the name in The King's Speech. Sort of Buhr-tee.

Whereas with my Pacific Northwest accent it's going to be a harder first syllable. Burr, like a shiver, or a seed that gets stuck in your side (or your poodle. By the dozens. I don't even know where in my yard they're coming from.) Or, Grr! Like a growl. With the emphasis heavily on the first syllable. So the difference between a T or a D afterwords is going to be negligible.

Or perhaps you're right and the T isn't quite crisp enough because I do feel I'm going out of my way a bit to throw emphasis on the T when I say it out loud. But I have to do the same thing with a D if I try a throw the consonant sound the other way.

But yeah, that coupled with the fact that Bertie is just not a common nickname here (which is sad because I find it charming) and his name is going to confuse people. At least spoken aloud. If they read his tag they'll get it. So he'll still have that over Amelie who, best case scenario gets called Emily. And I always think, "Yes! but with an A." Oh well. I have seriously been agonizing about this pronunciation issue for nearly a year. Maybe agonizing is a bit strong. But at some point everyone I know has had a version of the "Should I give my dog a name I know will be mispronounced forever?" monologue.

[charismaz.livejournal.com]

I was totally forgetting the impact that "r" could play on it. Whenever I want to do an American accent, I always start with repeating 'car' to get the r and a diphthong right. For some reason, I had got it into my mind that only British actors affecting an 'American' accent could mangle Bertie into Birdy.

Currently, me trying to do a Pacific Northwest accent with a crisp "t" has got me sounding like a sesame street character :/ British accent, all the way!

Out of curiosity, is Albert then pronounced with a "d"?

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

No, you can hear the t on the end of Albert. Heh, Albird. Although, if I say it more conversationally, "Oh Albert did blah blah," it would definitely be harder for a non-native to pick up on. But instead of Albird, it drops more to "Alber." The "t" is still there, but juuuuust barely. But that's also because the emphasis is gonna be heavy on the Al.

There's a really interesting essay on this sort of thing in the beginning of Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Traveled."

[katelynna10000.livejournal.com]

It's alright- I say allot of words in a British accent for no reason. Like Dalek or TARDIS, or valet, for that matter. Everyone always thinks I'm mispronouncing the kind we use for a car, oh how wrong they are....and then there's every name in LOTR...ANYWAY

and also What-ho fellow Pacific Norhtwestian! (is that what we call ourselves?) It's nice to know I'm not the only one ^_^

and you could always say 'like from The King's Speech' if no one understands how to say Bertie. I don't think it sounds like Birdy at all- especially because my grandma's name IS birdy, lol

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Whenever I say Birdy I think of John Ham in Mad Men. It seems like sort of a bizarre nick name but I like it. Also is there an American way to pronounce Dalek?

[katelynna10000.livejournal.com]

I think I've watched that show like once....

yah- but they always say it darlek, which is annoying...they just don't understand!

[derien.livejournal.com]

Most Americans do find it almost impossible to pronounce a crisp 't.' My friend Katy complains that Americans always mispronounce her name, she gets called 'Kady,' and when she tries to correct them they think she's saying 'Casey.'

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

I think the differences in regional accents are fascinating. Probably comes of watching My Fair Lady too often as a child.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I'm all for regional differences of accent, even if I think some sound dumb. ;) (Not my own, of course, mine has class. ;))

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Hah. Once when I lived in Seattle (I live on the other side of Washington state so my accent is the same as Seattle's local) I was in a shop and a guy came in to ask the owner for bus directions downtown. He had a Scottish brogue so thick that I could probably only understand him from watching so much British television and even then I was a couple beats behind in translating.

The owner didn't know which bus this guy should take and I did so I started to explain that they just needed to hop on the 75 and it would take them straight there. The guy just stares at me with this ridiculous grin then slaps the store owner on the shoulder and goes, "Would ya listen to her accent!" It was sort of bizarre and hilarious. And I thought, "Hah, it's not just American tourists who do stupid stuff like that."

[derien.livejournal.com]

I had a Scottish tourist once make fun of the way I say the word 'lock.' I don't know any other way to say it! I've thought and thought about this one - apparently I can't hear the difference. I'm not talking about a loch, Scotty!

[trista-zevkia.livejournal.com]

When I was in Scotland, we were waiting for a bus. This elderly Scottish woman asked me where we were from. I wasn't thinking, and said 'Tennessee' not say, America or the US. She nodded and said we spoke wonderful English anyway.

[coffee-n-retcon.livejournal.com]

My mother always complains that Americans say budder instead of butter.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

What a sweetie! And yes, Sunny Disposish sounds like quite an appropriate registered name (since his d. does look very s. in those photographs).

[wild-shadowfire.livejournal.com]

Cute pup.

I feel your pain... my cat's name is Jamila.

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think I've only ever heard that pronounced aloud once. Pretty sure it was in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (a shitty made for TV movie that is kind of amazing actually). They pronounced it like it's spelled, Juh-mill-uh. Is that close?

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is! Jamila is an Indian name. There was a character on The Bill with that name as a screen name once.

All this talk of accents (which I half understood) and Jamila's name made me remember that when I used to watch The Bill, I probably missed a good deal more speech than I realised, not just with their Cockney accents, but their localised slang. But they were all good actors, stage-trained of course, and I relied on their body language and expressions, and never missed the gist.

Heaven help American viewers of this show. :D

Your little Bertie is the sweetest! Imagine if he met my colleague's hyperactive, overexcited Tallulah. Never saw such an energetic dog (same, black poodle). It would be mayhem. There are toy Tallulahs all over the office.

I still have that wonderful picture that someone made of the sinister Reginald (black cat with the white shirtfront) and his scared wife (tubby tabby) who uncovers his dark past! I used it as wallpaper and it got some smiles. Very clever.

[gini-baggins.livejournal.com]

I had a girl in my class called Jamila. :)

I give my pets quite unusual (English) names, perhaps because they are quite unusual, but with the result that people just don't get what I'm saying.
My bearded dragon is called Reaver, my red corn snake is called Severus Elessar.

People are always like; huh? Perhaps that is just because they are Dutch ;P Can't help preferring English, can I?

[wild-shadowfire.livejournal.com]

Jamila is arabic and means "beautiful".

As to how it is pronounced... well, this is going to be kind of funny, because I'm not English, and the pronouncement was described for my language, but I'll try anyway: for us that was "Dscha-MI-lah", I think in English that would be "Ja-MEE-la" (google says so also ;) ), with the J sounding like the one from "Jack"...

[umpteenth-gail.livejournal.com]

This name is probably multinational, like others. I should have thought of that. Interesting how some names and words interweave through countries, not always neighbouring ones.

Gini, your menagerie sounds scary and fascinating. Their names seem quite ordinary in comparison to themselves. ☺

[coffee-n-retcon.livejournal.com]

Adorable puppy! He really does look like a Bertie.

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

D'aww, what a cutie! He gives off an especially Bertie-ish vibe in the second picture.

I can relate to the name issue. Both my cats have baffling names, and it always makes for an amusing time at the vet's office.

[saylee.livejournal.com]

What a cutie! He definitely looks like a Bertie.