Re: autumn

So, here’s Krishna the scholar, out to explain a bit. I hope this isn’t just more confusing… Hard to be phonetically accurate without pronouncing things for you…

Americans usually say “AW-dum” for the word that Britishers usually pronounce as “OH-t’m” (the “OH” is the same one used in words like call — “COHL” and draw — “DROH”, a little more round and further back than our standard “o” phoneme; also, the symbol ‘ is meant to indicate that there is very little space between the two letters on either side of it).

Damn, this is SO hard to do without phonetic symbols…

At any rate, the name Gautam is a Sanskrit word, meaning “Remover of Darkness.” It is one of many names for Lord Vishnu (along with Krishna…), and was the name of Siddharta Gautama, later to become known as the Buddha, the “awakened one”.

In Sanskrit, it would be pronounced “GOW-thum,” roughly… But it isn’t spelled that way according to English phonetics, so your GSI is used to simply assuming that you won’t be able to say it “properly”. Thus, the alternate form “GOH-t’m”.

Most Indian people I know come up with some alternate form that may be easier for Westerners to pronounce.

Cheers,
-K

P.S. Judy, please consider yourself invited to a “Welcome Home Shanshan and Krishna” party on Sunday evening at 7 at my friend Gurtej’s place, 1836 Arch St. Please let any DeCadence peepz know (as I don’t have anyone’s number yet, nor a phone(!), I’m letting my friends handle the inviting portion of things). If you need directions, please e-mail me.