The critiques over Judge Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court range far and wide, but one that’s gaining attention came from the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian. “Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor,” he wrote in a National Review Online post, “is unnatural in English.”

Not to make a federal case out of this, but to me, English pronunciation is quite a puzzle in general, and I’m not sure what’s natural and what’s not. I majored in English in Canada, and encountered a lot of different spellings and pronunciations up there.

Perhaps the pronunciation issue is overshadowing a major milestone that’s posing a challenge. Sotomayor (soh-toh-my-YOR’) would be the first four-syllable surname on the Supreme Court, based on what I see in this list. There was a Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar who might have had something to say about this, but that was a long time ago under President Cleveland.

Krikorian (kri-KOR’-ee-uhn) said he’s all for individualism, but that “one of the areas where conformity is appropriate is how your new countrymen say your name, since that’s not something the rest of us can just ignore, unlike what church you go to or what you eat for lunch.”

OK but what if the United States takes over a Spanish-speaking island in the Caribbean and the people there have Spanish names already? Just asking.

(Photo: AP)