Wednesday, November 4, 2009

S-A-R-A con “H” mudo al final…




My name is constantly spelled wrong even though I spell it out and I, obviously, write it correctly in my daily correspondence. I received my first apology email ever from a Spanish secretary working in London. Her boss is Spanish and she emailed me to confirm a meeting with one of the three musketeers. Here are the emails:

“Good afternoon Beatriz,

Many thanks for sending me the confirmation; Boss 2 will meet your boss in the lobby of the Ritz on the 12th.

Kind regards,

Sarah Warden”

Her reply:

“Sarah,

Many thanks to confirm and apologies for the misspelling of your name.

Kind regards,

Spanish secretary in London”

My reply:

“No problem about the misspelling!! - I am quite used to it here in Spain but do insist on saying that I have "un H mudo al final".”

Her reply:

“Well done! H is quite a useless letter on the Spanish pronunciation / sound”.

Sure, her response was friendly enough but my name without the silent “H” is like walking around with just one shoe on. I always explain that it is from the Bible and it is a Hebrew name and almost all Hebrew, as well as Arabic words that end with the vowel “a” are almost automatically accompanied by the “H”. When I lived in Israel, I was asked a number of times by the airport security why I was named "Sarah" if I am not Jewish and as I was usually quite stunned by such a question, I alwasy ended up having lots of problems.

I am not sure why I let it get to me as the Spanish secretary in London simply stated that the “H” is a useless letter in Spanish pronunciation but my name is spelled wrong on a daily basis. I remember when I worked for ACCENT coordinating US University study abroad programs when one of my co-workers called me a “pija” (snob) for having the “H” mudo al final. Give me a break!!

The “H” in Spanish is semi-silent because when it appears at the beginning of a word, it does have a slight sound (i.e., huevo, Huelva, Hernández, etc.) and the perfect example of the slight sound is when Spaniards who are learning to speak English pronounce a simple word such as “Hello”, it sounds as if they are clearing phlegm out of their throats because they put such strong emphasis on the American “H”.

I decided to do a survey throughout the office about the letter “H”. Boss 3 just told me that he finds my questions perplexed; I had to remind him that I studied “artes”. He said that he doesn’t know much about the “H” as he studied math and that he prefers questions about the number five but he concluded that the “H” is useless. Another one of my co-workers, who writes “saraH” in his emails to me, just told me to eliminate the “H” from my name and to just accept the fact that it is useless. HELLLOOO?!!! Are we going to begin dropping letters from other peoples’ names and words that contain the letter “H” just because a letter has such minor importance in one language? I do not think so. Just think of the words that have an “H” without it. It is the eighth letter of the alphabet and there it shall remain.

My name looks naked without the “H” and I will forever be Sarah (with an "H") and I tend to agree with Boss 1 who stated that it was cojonudo, fantastic.