Every Syllable Matters

 My whole life I’ve been called different names, “Veom”, “Yome”, Vome”, the list goes on. Peoples names are not only significant due to it being what you refer to people as but because it displays your culture and family history every time someone calls your name.

Every single name you hear on daily basis has a deeper meaning that people often overlook when talking to people. Take a common name for example: Peter; I bet you probably haven't thought about what the name means or where it originated from. Well, it actually means rock and signifies strength and resilience, this name originated from a greek word too. All this meaning is packed into one word and it holds much more importance than it is usually given in society. One name isn't just a word, its their identity. Thats why you should strive to say it right.

Many can argue this from a biological perspective, arguing that perceptual narrowing, which causes phonemic deafness, is why people struggle pronouncing names. It is a process which usually occurs during the first year of life where the brain subconsciously reduces its ability to distinguish certain sounds that are not present in the language or languages that the baby is exposed too. In fact, there are 869 phonemes, the sounds that make up words, in all human languages, in english there are only 40. So it makes sense that people struggle with differentiating foreign sounds. But, mispronouncing isn't always the problem, the problem with society is not wanting to pronounce it right.