[Grammar] Use of diacritical marks on LOGO

[ametcalfe]

First thank you in advance for help with my question! We are working on naming a business and want to ensure that the name is easy to pronounce for Americans. This is for an Indian restaurant, so naturally, we have selected a Hindi word. When you type the word "Fresh" into Google translate into Hindi the translation comes up as tājā. This is the name we would like to use for our business.

However, we are unclear if we should include the diacritical marks on our logo. From my knowledge, the short line above the a creates a long vowel. The way we want people to pronounce this would would be similar to the sound Ta-ja or like Taj Mahal but Taj with an a on the end.

My question is - should we include diacritical mark on the a's in taja or leave them out and simply write it as taja?

Thank you!
Autumn

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum, Autumn.

I would simply write 'taja'.

When answering the phone or welcoming diners, the way you pronounce the word will soon be picked up by your customers.

 

[riquecohen]

I agree with Rover, but I would like to suggest that you not rely on Google for the translation. You might want to check the word with a native Hindi speaker.

 

[tedmc]

The word is easy enough to pronounce as it is. Adding a diacritic would only create a distraction.

not a teacher

 

[MikeNewYork]

For me, the short line above the "a" creates the sound like "a" in say (a long a). I do not pronounce Taj with a long "a". I pronounce that "a" as the "a" in "far" or "hard". An "ah" sound. I agree with the others about the diacritics. Americans rarely use them and really do not need them. One learns a pronunciation by hearing not by reading. If you name the restaurant "taja" or "Taja", I think most people would get it right the first time.

 

[bhaisahab]

This is how it's pronounced: http://www.forvo.com/word/ताजा/

 

[ametcalfe]

Thank you all very much! My husband is actually a native Hindi speaker so fortunately we have that covered . As you probably know, Hindi is written in the Devanagari alphabet so that is why writing Taja in english is challenging. We want to ensure people pronounce it correctly. Also being in the US we want to avoid any tendency to use Spanish pronunciations. So we want to make sure we are as clear as possible on the logo.

We started down the diacritical path because Google Translate suggested the word pronounced that way - but I agree that the lines above the a make it a hard a and it should be a soft a. I agree that in English it is rare to use the marks so I was hesitant to use them as well.

Thank you! Any more feedback/input is welcome and truly appreciated!

 

[Tdol]

The diacritical marks probably won't help someone who doesn't know how to pronounce it greatly- if you said it was like Taj Mahal, many in the UK would pronounce it with a long a.