Oh, definitely not surprised. But, if they did take the moment to learn it, then suddenly all these fans would learn how it's meant to be said, too. It just seems like the respectful thing to me.
Pronunciation of footballers' names
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Oh, definitely not surprised. But, if they did take the moment to learn it, then suddenly all these fans would learn how it's meant to be said, too. It just seems like the respectful thing to me.
Yeah - I mostly agree. If you can easily enough pronounce it correctly, you should. It's not hard to say LEE-OH-NELL for English speakers.
I love when Yanks say “Erzil” for “Özil” because English people describe Ö and “er” ignoring the fact that they don’t pronounce R sounds after vowels.
I believe the Anglicised pronunciation comes from the myth(?) that his parents were big Lionel Ritchie fans. Even if it were true, Cristiano’s parents named him after Ronald Regan and nobody calls him “Ronald-O”.
I think this is more of an issue in England to be honest (and other countries where English is the first language). It at least seems like commentators have less knowledge of how pronunciation works in other languages.
As a Dane I can obviously pronounce Danish names, but then I've had French and English in school so that's fine too. I have a decent knowledge of Spanish, German, Swedish and Norwegian pronunciation as well (the latter three due to them being similar to Danish in some ways). And I suppose Dutch is okay as well. And Icelandic.
I'm guessing because English speakers don't really "need" to learn other languages. I'm not expecting anyone to get Danish right, by the way.
As a Dane I can obviously pronounce Danish names, but then I've had French and English in school so that's fine too. I have a decent knowledge of Spanish, German, Swedish and Norwegian pronunciation as well (the latter three due to them being similar to Danish in some ways). And I suppose Dutch is okay as well. And Icelandic.
I'm guessing because English speakers don't really "need" to learn other languages. I'm not expecting anyone to get Danish right, by the way.
Anyone can speak Danish, just say Kamelåså!
It's Oop-ah-meh-cah-noh
btw: foreign commentators butcher like 99% of German names. Even simple ones like Lahm, Müller or Kroos ... impossible to be pronounced right
btw: foreign commentators butcher like 99% of German names. Even simple ones like Lahm, Müller or Kroos ... impossible to be pronounced right
Used to watch quite a few United games in various languages on dodgy streams and found the same thing only you'd get weird pronunciations of the English player's names as well as some of the non-English ones depending on what language it was in.
I think it's Russian but might be Ukrainian where Shaw is more like "Show" for example. I remember that one but there were plenty of others.
I think it's Russian but might be Ukrainian where Shaw is more like "Show" for example. I remember that one but there were plenty of others.
It’s an Anglosphere issue to an extent but also prevalent in most large countries that already speak one of the major languages. Competence in foreign languages is historically pretty low in France, China, Russia and many parts of Latin America. Smaller states like Denmark and the Netherlands need to be multilingual as the number of speakers of their native languages is so low.
English speakers struggle with umlauts in general, the fact that they realise that it's doing something is pretty good going!
It's also a difficult one because it's a Turkish name and this would suggest Er-zil isn't far away from the correct pronunciation rather than the more traditional oe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Turkish
At any rate I've always felt that when saying a German players name which contains an umlaut it sounds odd if people overexaggate the vowel change in English . So as long as it's not Muller (like the yoghurt) , GOT-ze, Low (like the opposite of high), Rudd-iger etc... it's never struck me as particularly egregious even if it's not exactly how you would say those names if you were speaking about those people in German.
Yeah, back in the early days of streaming I watched a few games on Asian channels. Usually, you could guess who they were referring to - but in some cases it was near impossible.
My favorites are Jew-ventus and Ajax (ei-djax).
Without the two last Rs (I think).
De - bru(h) - neh
With the "u(h)" sounding roughly like the "u" in "sun".
But, yeah - "De brur-ner" wouldn't be terrible.
I think I agree with that.
Van Gaal (with a hard g) or Van Haal?
Ajax is tricky because there's a standard English pronunciation for the Greek mythological figure by that name.
The pronunciation in Dutch would be (I think) something like this, split into three parts:
I (as in I am a nerd) - Ya (as in Yahoo) - X (as in the last sound you make when you say SEX).
I - ya - x
Fun Khal.
I'm not allowed to post links so ... search for "is your cat called Kevin?" on Youtube, in the very beginning de Bruyne is pronouncing his name.
about that whole pronunciation thing: as a German I don't mind foreigners pronouncing German names wrong. Usually it's much worse when they try to pronounce it right and only make things worse. Every now and then I hear Germans commentating for American/English TV and even they pronounce the German names the english way. Think about it: Germans intentionally mispronouncing German names so it sounds "right" for the audience
Just pronounce it the way you would in your language, nobody will be mad about it. Team names though - that's a different animal for me. If you're a commentator and don't know how to pronounce names of big teams like Milan, Juventus, Ajax etc ... you're not doing your job right. That's just unprofessional.
Pretty much impossible. Van Haal is closer.
But the actual sound in Haal isn't used in English (or at least not in standard English).
And the V is pronounced as F.
So more Fan Haal. But not "fan" - more like "faan". Or "fahn". Like Khan. Or Kahn. But with a shorter "a".
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Except for Bayern München.
English speakers just can't do that one.
BYE-EARN-MOON-SHEN is gonna be as close as it gets, I think.
The sounds represented by ü (with the umlaut) and ch (in München) are extremely problematic for most English speakers.
In Latin America there are 3 ways commentators usually pronounce foreign names:
like Spaniards, pronouncing like it would read in Spanish.
anglicizing every name, specially if it's from a non Romance language.
or pronouncing it very correct, there's always 1 or 2 commentators who speak many languages, and also the classic try-hard.
like Spaniards, pronouncing like it would read in Spanish.
anglicizing every name, specially if it's from a non Romance language.
or pronouncing it very correct, there's always 1 or 2 commentators who speak many languages, and also the classic try-hard.
Can't remember which Scottish commentator it was but usually it is David Francey on the radio commentary in the 70s. Rangers were playing in a European game and there was this Polish CF and he forget his name and scribbled a note and passed it on to his colleague asking his name. His colleague scribbled back, " buggered is I know" and David Francey said the tall Polish CF, Buggered if Know nearly scores.
You cannot beat Jack Charlton who keeps saying Peel, for Pele.
I was always amused by Big Rons attempts at Juventus player Torrichelli "toy-chelly".
Shunsuke Nakamura and Keisuke Honda are often butchered. the u in the first name is silent and often the last sylable is over pronounced.
Shun-sue-key should be shuns'qe (as manuel from fawlty towers would say)
Shun-sue-key should be shuns'qe (as manuel from fawlty towers would say)
What about Fernandes pronounced Fernandsh as far as I know - Portuguese speakers?
It's Oop-ah-meh-cah-noh
btw: foreign commentators butcher like 99% of German names. Even simple ones like Lahm, Müller or Kroos ... impossible to be pronounced right
Or Werner. Though I think there's less potential in German names to be butchered. It's usually only the vowels English speakers struggle with.
I'm really enjoying this thread, its been a good education on how to pronounce some names. I can't believe as a United fan for almost 26 years I've been pronouncing Solskjaers name wrong!
One of my favourite journalists to listen to is Tim Vickery. He's English but based in south America and tbh I think I listen to him mainly because of the way he pronounces foreign players names which is just brilliant
He was on talksport a while back discussing how Brazilians pronounce "woodgate" as in Jonathan Woodgate and it was something like "ou-gee-gah-chee" which made me chuckle
One of my favourite journalists to listen to is Tim Vickery. He's English but based in south America and tbh I think I listen to him mainly because of the way he pronounces foreign players names which is just brilliant
He was on talksport a while back discussing how Brazilians pronounce "woodgate" as in Jonathan Woodgate and it was something like "ou-gee-gah-chee" which made me chuckle
How do you pronounce Paris?
Pah-riss
Pain-free
You would expect Anglicisations as you would expect the French to do with English words.
The French call London, Londres pronounced Lon-dreh.
Consistency here is basically impossible unless you learn all languages.
Pah-riss
Pain-free
You would expect Anglicisations as you would expect the French to do with English words.
The French call London, Londres pronounced Lon-dreh.
Consistency here is basically impossible unless you learn all languages.
What exactly is the difference between the two. One is München in English, the other München in Italian. Your post makes no sense.
They should call it Bayern Minga. That is pretty easy to pronounce for English speakers.
That's a completely fair comment but I'm not using logic here.
Just watched a “Mystery” programme on Netflix about the disappearance of a young woman from the Cecil Hotel in LA. Nearly threw my cup of tea back up when they pronounced it “See-sle Hotel” as in diesel. At least they got the “hotel” bit right. It’s like they do it deliberately.
was average, btw
was average, btw
Bes-ik-tas pronounciation irks me for some reason. The correct way is like besh-ee-tash
Virgil Van Dijk is not pronounced "van dyke" either. Its Von Dayk - like you'd say swan lake
Azpilicueta is ath-pilicueta
Virgil Van Dijk is not pronounced "van dyke" either. Its Von Dayk - like you'd say swan lake
Azpilicueta is ath-pilicueta
yes, remember that from old ITV CL days. With Brian Moore (best commentator ever btw) Torricelli btw, dirty bastard
Why would you name your kid Pusey?
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It’s even worse when he vacates the back line and dribbles into midfield.
It leaves a massive Pusey hole that someone needs to fill.
Pint of Perrone please
it’s the problem with digitalisation. we’ve all done it. you think you’re on one internet explorer tab, when in reality, it’s not a dirty search bar, but an application for a birth certificate. and before you know it, you’re getting simpson-pusey christened.