Hello, my name is…Help for the linguistically challenged

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960’s has had its advantages for sure but one of the major side effects are the linguistic challenges one faces as they head into the world with a Brooklyn accent. There remain some author’s names to this day I have trouble pronouncing.

Enter TeachingBooks.com’s Author Pronunciation Guide.

Here you can can listen to brief recordings of authors and illustrators introducing themselves. Each begins with “Hello my name is…” There are hundreds of author’s and illustrators in the database.

In addition to learning “correct pronunciations of hard-to-pronounce names” one also gets to hear the authors reveal the stories behind their names.

Though the list has some questionable entries, there are 8 for the name Smith, it does contain many that benefit from the audible approach.

If you’re looking for help pronouncing older authors or non-literary terms there is inogolo.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn at inogolo.

Thanks to Book Lust for the lead