Expert: Cintia - 7/15/2004

Question
Dear Cintia,

Many Argentinean people have names that sounds not Spanish. Some of them sounds Italian (Sconochini, Ginobili), some German etc.

My question is: How do you pronounce them? According to the original language or according to the rules of Spanish? How do you pronounce for example the names above?

I thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Emre

Answer
Dear Emre,

Thank you very much for your question.
Most argentinians are either Italian or Spanish descendants, that is why you will find a lot of people with Italian last names. The reason for this is that there was a great flow of immigrants during the end of XIX century and the beginning of XX and many of the people came from Italy.
In general, Italian names are pronounced according to the original language, and German names are pronounced following Spanish rules. For example, GINOBILI is pronounced as in Italy, and if we pronounced it as in Spain we would have to say " HEENOBEELEE".
I hope this helps. If there is anything else you would like to know do not hesitate to ask me again.