How should commentators (and the rest of us) pronounce foreign names? Are there any guidelines to keep them in that narrow middle ground between ignorant and pretentious, or is it a case by case thing?
My instinct, off the top of my head:
1) Be consistent. Why start pronouncing the o at the end of Brazilian names as u if you’re going to completely ignore all the other elements of Portuguese pronunciation? Why pronounce Solskjaer Solshkyayr-uh when you pronounce Gronkjaer Gronkyar?
2) But don’t just follow English spelling rules on autopilot when they lead to something wildly different from the real sounds. Pronouncing Rosicky to rhyme with Nicky is not on – ‘k’ is a bit too far away from the Czech ‘tsk’ to be acceptable. Whereas Italian and Romanian ch is 'k' and nothing like the ones in 'church'.
3) Only use existing English sounds. No rolled r’s or Arabic glottal consonants. It sounds rubbish pronouncing Thierry Henry’s name as an English ‘Henry’, but ahn-ree is fine - no need for a proper French nasal vowel or throaty r.
4) Don’t worry too much about stress, but where the stress is actually marked, like with Kaká, then obey it.
5) With superstars, all bets are off and you have to use the generally accepted pronunciation. I’ve got a friend who knows Portuguese and she calls Ronaldinho Rrronawjinyu in normal conversation... no.
6) If you're David Pleat, just refer to them by their shirt numbers.
What to do, though, about Spaniards and their c? It’s far enough away from s to violate the Rosicky rule, but Thelta Vigo? And what about the v? The proper Spanish pronunciation of David Villa is Dabeeth Beeya ([daˈβið ˈβiʎa] or [daˈβið ˈβiʝa] for those of you that know IPA). I’ve heard all of the following:
a) Villa to rhyme with Miller*
b) Viya to rhyme with rear
c) Veeya with proper Spanish i and a
d) Beeya
To me b) is the best. English l is so different from the various versions of the ‘ll’ sound that it’s unacceptable, like Rosikky. You don’t say tortilla to rhyme with killer. But it’s standard to pronounce Spanish v’s like English ones, as in Valencia, Velasquez... and all the other sounds are close enough.
Sometimes you even hear ‘Beeya’ preceded by a perfectly normal English ‘Deyvid’. If you’re going to say Beeya, the David is going to have to be something like Dabeeth, surely?
*box-to-box
My instinct, off the top of my head:
1) Be consistent. Why start pronouncing the o at the end of Brazilian names as u if you’re going to completely ignore all the other elements of Portuguese pronunciation? Why pronounce Solskjaer Solshkyayr-uh when you pronounce Gronkjaer Gronkyar?
2) But don’t just follow English spelling rules on autopilot when they lead to something wildly different from the real sounds. Pronouncing Rosicky to rhyme with Nicky is not on – ‘k’ is a bit too far away from the Czech ‘tsk’ to be acceptable. Whereas Italian and Romanian ch is 'k' and nothing like the ones in 'church'.
3) Only use existing English sounds. No rolled r’s or Arabic glottal consonants. It sounds rubbish pronouncing Thierry Henry’s name as an English ‘Henry’, but ahn-ree is fine - no need for a proper French nasal vowel or throaty r.
4) Don’t worry too much about stress, but where the stress is actually marked, like with Kaká, then obey it.
5) With superstars, all bets are off and you have to use the generally accepted pronunciation. I’ve got a friend who knows Portuguese and she calls Ronaldinho Rrronawjinyu in normal conversation... no.
6) If you're David Pleat, just refer to them by their shirt numbers.
What to do, though, about Spaniards and their c? It’s far enough away from s to violate the Rosicky rule, but Thelta Vigo? And what about the v? The proper Spanish pronunciation of David Villa is Dabeeth Beeya ([daˈβið ˈβiʎa] or [daˈβið ˈβiʝa] for those of you that know IPA). I’ve heard all of the following:
a) Villa to rhyme with Miller*
b) Viya to rhyme with rear
c) Veeya with proper Spanish i and a
d) Beeya
To me b) is the best. English l is so different from the various versions of the ‘ll’ sound that it’s unacceptable, like Rosikky. You don’t say tortilla to rhyme with killer. But it’s standard to pronounce Spanish v’s like English ones, as in Valencia, Velasquez... and all the other sounds are close enough.
Sometimes you even hear ‘Beeya’ preceded by a perfectly normal English ‘Deyvid’. If you’re going to say Beeya, the David is going to have to be something like Dabeeth, surely?
*box-to-box
