Do you just pronounce it like “Travises” like we do colloquially? Or is there some way to do it.

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    There’s a linguistics professor at MIT who I once heard say in a class (an Open Courseware class… I didn’t attend MIT or anything):

    “We’ll speak no more of prescriptive linguistics except to mock it.”

    However you want to say it, say it. Your particular style of speech is unique and beautiful and you should keep speaking that way.

    I personally would pronounce it like “Travises”. As if pluralizing it. (“There are multiple Travises in the phone book.”) Makes it fairly clear. I guess that brings up the question what to do if there are multiple Travises who co-own something. “The Travises’ shared given name.” I think off the top of my head, I’d probably pronounce it like “Traviseses.” Cool!

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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      3 days ago

      I would, at the least, desire to egg that MIT prof’s house. Language is about communication, and if everyone has their own rules there can be no communication. If you spell it Travis’ I’ll be asking you what a Travi is.

      • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Right?!

        I’ve dabbled in learning Japanese enough to know that learning a second language as an adult has a way of driving home to you how little I really understand about my own native language. And learning what little I have of a second language definitely has taught me more about English.