Chris Bonds wrote:

>Harry Warschauer wrote:
>
>You mean they say "Bark?" But it reminds me the Russians pronounce it
>something like "Bah-ha".  Can anyone who speaks Russian explain this?

But with a British accent wouldn't Bach come out sounding like "bark?" The
correct German pronunciation is with a gutteral h, no? Like "ich"

As to the Russian pronunciation, my Russian wife tells me that the name
itself is pronounced like the German, with a respirated h sound with a
touch of hkhk gutteral sound like the Spanish j.  Not an h but not a k
either.  But in the case of Russian, you have cases, so you hear what
sounds like Bah-ha because the ending of the word Bach has to be modified
according to its grammatical context.  Below are some other Russian
versions of JSB's name:

Baha I like to play Baha
Bahom  We went to the restaurant with Bahum
Bahe  We are talking about Bahe
Bahu  Tell Bahu that he uses too many repeats

Spasiba

David Runnion
http://www.serafinotrio.com