Outrage over NEBCO's Gandhi-Bot

I already voiced my opinion on the issue, but I have another issue: can't we please spell "Gandhi" correctly? It's in the title of the article, the title of this thread, on the can of beer, in the history books, all over the Internet you're currently staring into. It isn't hard to not spell it "Ghandi;" it's never been spelled that way. Take one second to spell it correctly.

I swear this misspelling in particular is an epidemic on the Internet.

 

Break out the fake nose and glasses.

 

It's not an English name, there is no "correct" spelling (at least in English). When names are written in other alphabets, there is no wrong spelling as long as it accurately represents the proper pronunciation. That's why there are a bunch of different ways to spell Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

 

Despite it not being an English name, there is a generally accepted spelling of it that is more correct than any other spelling. Googling "Ghandi" auto-corrects your search to "Gandhi." Wikipedia spells it "Gandhi." All sources gleaned from Google spell it "Gandhi." While I will concede that the translation issue makes it so there is no totally correct spelling (meaning I was wrong to say it's a misspelling), we should strive to be as correct as possible, and that spelling is "Gandhi."

 

There's no legal basis for this whatsoever. New England came up with a distinct name to help draw attention to their beer and it looks like they accomplished their goal. Freedom of speech: deal with it.

Makes me want to road trip to New England just to grab this.

 

Fair enough. I didn't know there was an accepted way to spell it; as far as I can think, I've seen both of them about evenly.

 

It's a pop-lockin' robotic version of Gandhi.What's there not ta love?

Rock on NEBCo.

 

That is some great work stum pub!

 

ridiculous. I like how the ppl mad are arguing how it doesn't blend with what ghandi stands for - yet have no response to his own family not caring. and threatening it with 'or else'. on a beer that's been out quite awhile. ah, independent thinking.

 

Best comment from the linked article:

Well, lucky for us, Indian laws mean diddly squat in the USA. By the way, they will spend time and effort pursuing a beer can they find offensive, but cannot solve their own country's problems with violence against women? Oh, India, you're making us laugh at you. Again.

 

WTF cares? Are you that hurt by people's misspellings? If you are then why are you on a site where half the people may or may not be drinking?

 

Next a descendant of Pliny The Elder will file suite.

 

Obviously, I care. Grammar and spelling are not difficult when you have the entirety of human knowledge available to you via the machine you're typing on. I don't correct every little mistake on here or rag on typos, but "Ghandi" is not a drunk typo. It's ignorance of the more correct spelling, and it happens incredibly often. Is me taking issue with it and trying to educate hurting you?

 

As someone who studies international law, I'm often perturbed at the way the U.S. shrugs off legal regimes that are not its own. This is not one of those times. NYT v. Sullivan and its ilk win the day.

Long live Gandhi Bot.

 

Wow. I can't believe this. Another example of another country/religion trying to impose their laws and religious fervor on another culture.

"If you're insulted by another person's words then you cannot control your own feelings, and expect everyone else to do it for you" - some wise person, probably.

 

Use a Muhammad name in a beer and you're likely to get your head chopped off.

 

I'm shocked, shocked to find that this is going on in here!

Errr, could you distribute down into Massachusetts.

 

Sorry, this is nonsense. In the Devanagari, his name is गांधी, more accurately rendered in English with long vowels; Gāndhī. One of the idiosyncrasies of Hindi, and Sanskrit for that matter, is the inclusion of aspirated consonants, romanized as dh, kh, gh, etc. The western ear is oblivious to this distinction as we never had to pay it any mind, but it is second nature to the native speaker. Phonetically, it represents the difference between "ta" and "t'ha," a far-too-common and familiar mistake being the pronunciation of the name "Siddhartha", aspirations aside; Sid-dar-ta, and not Sid-dar-THa. That being said, there is a world of difference between a "ga" (ग) and a "gha" (घ), and a "da" (द) and a "dha" (ध). Take for example; dātu (दातु) = portion v. dhātu (धातु) = realm. As such, that his name is spelled Gandhi is simply undebatable.

 

As a white person I could not possibly understand how you could be offended by this.

 

Word?