How much anglicization to use when pronouncing words in other languages depends on a few things: which nationality of English you speak, which language the words come from you're trying to pronounce, and how familiar the foreign word is in English.
And that's what we can call it--"anglicization." All languages uses their own version of it to pronounce non-native words. Too much anglicization and you get what Jan calls "incorrect" pronounciation, but it's only going to be incorrect if a wide majority of people recognize a less anglicized version of the word as correct. For example, lots of people say "Chinelli" and so "Sinelli" won't pass. Pogliaghi is both unfamiliar enough a word to English speakers and also has visually daunting elements that don't lead to an easy anglicization (like Cinelli does) so people pause, then ask how to say it, or, recently, google it. See also Ciocc.
On the other hand Singer is such a familiar word in English, both as an ordinary noun and as a proper name, that its path toward anglicization is smoothed and few people will object to hearing "singer" for an A.Singer bike when it is said by a native English speaker on soil where English is widely spoken. Then too, there are variations in French pronounciation as Nick and Jan point out--I was taught in school (and in travel in France) to say "sanjear" as Jan has it, so it's interesting to hear a native speaker like Nick pronounce it "sanjay" so either there are regional differences in how you pronounce that terminal r, or problems with my education. But anglicization almost always happens to some extent: niether non-anglicized versions on record here, "sanjay" and "sanjear", attempt to convery the way you pronounce the "an" sound with a nasalized sound (as it's called in French class) that's too unfamiliar to English speakers to bother with outside of Fench class or outside of actually learning the language. As opposed to just learning the least embarrassing ways to pronounce French words.
American English speakers do less anglicizing than British speakers so the rules are different by nationality. On the BBC or in most casual media in Britian, even a processed cheese ad on TV, you'll hear French pronounced very correctly in French accent, nasalization and all. But other languages get more fully anglicized. I used to hear on BBC Radio Four about the "Joonta" in "Nye-ca-rag-you-a", and British people often roll their eyes when they hear words in Spanish pronounced without anglicization in American media, because it sounds affected to many Britons. Even though correctly pronounced French words don't sound affected to the British ear. (This separate status for French may have something to do with the vaguely unresolved medieval Norman issue of whether England is a province of France or France is a province of England)
Same reaction from British people hearing Americans say they visited Firenze to see the David. But Americans will enjoy saying "Firenze" once they see it on all the street signs, and it's easy to pronounce. Americans might even try out "Roma" to the annoyance of British listeners. But don't try out "Daa-vide" for the David when you're back home because "David" is so familiar as a word that it gets fully anglicized. Much like Singer.
Mitch Harris Little Rock Canyon, Utah, USA
On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 12:55 PM, Kurt Sperry <haxixe@gmail.com> wrote:
>> What would be the correct "English way" to pronounce Cinelli?
>>
>> regards,
>>
>> Jack Fortune
>> Eugene, Oregon USA
>
> I've gotten "nice Sinelli!" a few times.
>
> I think one should if capable try to emulate native pronunciations.
> Americans are generally sufficiently insular as it stands.
>
> Kurt Sperry
> Bellingham, Washington
> USA