I’m not really sure to be honest , I don’t hear it too often as I don’t play him
Pronunciation of footballers' names
- Thread starter horsechoker
- Start date
Do the non-British/Irish posters actually think that they pronounce English names and words properly?
It’s an English word!
With Solskjaer I really had to sit down for a minute in order to make sense of the IPA. It is really quite different from what you would expect or what you hear.
[ˈûːlə ˈɡʉ̂nːɑr ˈsûːlʂæːr]
Best possible approximation would be Oole (yes oo as in school) Günnar Sulshaar
The length marks are quite important as you see in this video: (9) How to Pronounce Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (real Norwegian pronunciation only) - YouTube
I have been to can correcly say Woolfardisworthy!
It's an italian club. We pronounce it however we want
I feel like Ole being pronounced as Ollie is fair enough as that’s basically his nickname.
Does it piss you off when people say Inter Milan? I know Italians say just Milan for AC and simply Inter for Internazionale.
Founded by Englishmen and they have an English flag on their badge, so in this example there actually is an argument to go full brexit with the pronunciationIt's an italian club. We pronounce it however we want
It‘s a weird thing to get hung up on in my opinion. There’s a lot of accent diversity in the UK. If I drive 40 minutes on the motorway to Liverpool people pronounce my surname differently to me. When I lived in Scotland the pronunciation difference was even more stark. Then again my surname is Scottish in origin so who has jurisdiction over the pronunciation?
I’ve never met any foreign person that speaks English ‘properly’ in terms of pronunciation, the accent always overrides any attempt. Only a few Dutch people I’ve met get in the ball park of actually sounding English.
I’ve never heard any German commentators switch to the Queen‘s RP when saying English names. It would be bloody hilarious if they did mind.
Wasn't he the one who did Brexit?
I love the famous English derby match between Everton Liverpool and their city rivals FC.
It’s the flag of Milan.
And that’s fair enough. I’d also pronounce it like that if I was speaking in Italian to you (well I wouldn’t because I can barely ask for a coffee, but you get the point!). I’d also call the city Milano, too, but it doesn’t make much sense to borrow that translation back into English when referring to the club when the original word is an English one anyway. If I did either in English I’d look like a pretentious git because there’s already a well established English form. It’s hyper-correct.It's an italian club. We pronounce it however we want
In the same way, I’d also use all number of absolutely butchered English words in other languages. You better believe I’m pronouncing ‘Wi-Fi’ like the French do if I’m talking French, or I’m calling a mobile phone a ’Handy’ in German (and trying very hard not to laugh each time) just as a French speaker would put up with how we’ve pillaged their language for vocab. But if I started asking my English friends for a handy in an attempt to show my clout as a German speaker people would rightly think I was asking them to wank me off.
No I agree with you. It's not about perfectly imitating native pronunciation. German commentators will pronounce Manchester as Menchester as German has no æ sound. That's normal. It's about not totally butchering names by completely changing the sounds. I've heard Glenn Hoddle say Modrick. That sort of thing.
Does anyone really considered that pronunciation of Milan “pretentious”? It’s been commonly used on English TV since the early 90s. I doubt it would even raise an eyebrow.
English also has a common pronunciation of Paris but it would be very weird if someone were to say Paris Saint-Germain using that pronunciation.
Isn’t this just a weird throwback to Germans being taught 1950’s RP pronunciation in English? Queen Elizabeth would absolutely say “Menchester”
I notice you do it a lot for English even though the A sound in “anfassen” is a lot closer.
Phil Yagyelka.
I remember that Casillas was difficult for commentators, saying "Casilias" or something like that.
Now in general they pronounce quite well.
The g / j of de Gea or the surnames that end in Z.
The only small thing that is a bit striking to me is the v (in Spanish it is pronounced like b) because it sounds too strong, like Falencia, Dafid Silfa etc
Now in general they pronounce quite well.
The g / j of de Gea or the surnames that end in Z.
The only small thing that is a bit striking to me is the v (in Spanish it is pronounced like b) because it sounds too strong, like Falencia, Dafid Silfa etc
“Ly” is the original pronunciation of “ll” from before we all got lazy. It’s still pronounced that way in the Philippines.
I tend to refer to Bayern as Bayern Munchen, mainly because I like saying Munchen
We’ve all been pronouncing Bruno Fernandes’ name wrong.
It’s Bruno ‘Fernonje’.. this is how Portuguese people pronounce it.
It’s Bruno ‘Fernonje’.. this is how Portuguese people pronounce it.
People complaining about people who pronounce things correctly can feck right off. I graduated school of doing-shit-right every Saturday morning with James Richardson.
You can keep your Bar-suh-lo-na. I'll stick to the 'th' like a badass.
You can keep your Bar-suh-lo-na. I'll stick to the 'th' like a badass.
Ironically, the former is how the Catalans actually say it.
I know, I know, and Barça is pronounced 'Bar-na' in the Land of Castles too. That's just my habitual use of Castilian kicking in. Thanks for correcting me on that, I actually forgot!
Especially when they've both played with him for two seasons...
If anything it is American influence I would say. The average German will not hear the difference between 'dance' and 'dense' (American pronunciation) and therefore assumes a has to be pronounced e. Again, due to the lack of the open front vowel æ you naturally substitute it with the nearest sound. In most accents of the UK the difference in vowel quality between a and e is much more striking, e.g. bat and bet. But even using standard Southern English pronunciation, many do not hear that these two words are distinct. Believe me, I've tried. I also believe just substituting it with the German a instead would sound nicer. And actually more correct phonetically.
Happens in other languages as well. Czech has the loanword sendvič (sandwich) which is exactly how Germans pronounce sandwich as well.
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The funniest was when I was in Greece and watched Spurs.
The commentators kept on saying Hoddeller and Waddeller
The commentators kept on saying Hoddeller and Waddeller
They try harder but not always successfully. So determined are they to NOT say “Bal-lay” for Gareth Bale, they pronounce his surname with only 1 syllable.
Shaw-ree-tier-ree was a curveball, if I’m honest. Had been Shore-tyre in my head since I first read it.
MünchenIt's Hro-nal-jihno isn't it?
On the flip side, Totten-ham.
On the flip side, Totten-ham.
Definitely, it’s the sort of way of saying it that you’d absolutely expect someone who looks like James Horncastle (I’ve remembered his name) would adopt.
PSG is an interesting one though, you’re right, because it would be odd if someone did anglacise it, but it also extends to the ’Saint‘ too. In that instance, the whole word is kept in (something approaching) a French pronunciation (and I also suspect there is an issue here where English speakers are picking up the french aversion to the glottal stop) the double ’s’ sound encourages you to roll one into the other. On the other hand, if English speakers started using München in relation to Munich, or referred to Red Star as Crvena zvezda it would sound odd. And there’s some obvious cases in Spain where people Hispanify (is that a word? Iberify?) team names and make them wrong.
At any rate, this is derailing the thread somewhat. I think we can agree that there’s a balance to be struck between correctly pronouncing names (De Gayer is a particularly glaring example) and avoiding those sounds sounding jarring in the language you’re talking in. I used to live in Norwich and I’d pronounce that differently in all three languages I (to some degree) speak. I’d also Germanify players names (I was in Germany during the 2006 World Cup and German speakers seemed to particularly struggle with Crouch so I would put it in to a faux German accent for that one particularly); I also tend to pronounce Thomas Müller‘s name differently if I am speaking English or German too as an example.
Christian Ronald was my favourite United player.
Many countries’ commentators mispronounce foreign names. French commentary is horrendous with English names. When Russians say “Fulham”, it sounds like “f*сk ‘em”.