Reading Names Correctly

The correct use of titles is extremely important in Brunei, something I have mentioned before (e.g. here).

It seems that the more important someone is, the longer his name. (OK, that was a bit sexist; but it is still basically true that most top people in Brunei are male.) And of course none is more important than His Majesty the Sultan. The full reference to him is:

Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah Sultan dan Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam

Newsreaders are expected to read this out each time they mention him, which can be quite a lot of times during a news broadcast; though it seems that a slightly shorter version is acceptable. I managed to find an extract of the national RTB news of 17 April 2009 on YouTube (here) where the newsreader reads out the shorter version:

Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan dan Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam

This version omits some personal names (Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah) but keeps most of the titles.

It is impressive how fast, clearly and accurately television and radio broadcasters can say this. I have timed the YouTube extract at 5 seconds, but I suspect other newsreaders do it quite a bit faster and still get it all correct.

At last year's graduation ceremony for UBD students, HM the Sultan had consented to come and give out the certificates, and in the rehearsals there was panic because one of the Deans, being a foreigner, could not get His Majesty's name right, no matter how many times he tried. So it was decided that UBD should use the services of a professional newsreader instead. The result was stunning: this professional not only got all the official greetings and announcements correct, but also the names of all the graduating students were read clearly, accurately and quickly. In the end, the whole ceremony took half the expected time, there were no mistakes or stumbling over the names of the students, and everybody went home happy.

I know one university in Australia where it is the job of the resident phonetician to read out the names of students at graduation. But there is no way I could do better than the professional newsreader. It really was impressive.