Interesting/challenging names in skating | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Interesting/challenging names in skating

Your teacher was likely correct. But good news organizations also keep a bible of pronunciations I believe, and add to it when new names come up.

As most announcers at at skating events (as compared to TV commentators) don't announce skaters often enough to compile their own "bible", they would have to take the time to make one from scratch.

Having the organizers as registrants for phonetic pronunciations would be the best way to create a guide that all the announcers could use IMO. The ISU collects info on skaters hobbies....I'm thinking that asking for a name pronunciation would not be an undue burden

You gave me a great idea. You know when you look up on a word on a good online dictionary, after the word there is a loudspeaker icon which when you click, a lady pronounces the word.

The ISU profile page can also include a sound clip of the skater saying his/her name. You click the loudspeaker icon after the skater's name and the sound clip is played:"MY NAME IS ARMIN MAHBANOOZADEH"
 
GS itself has an entire thread full of links to videos of skaters pronouncing their own names. Eighteen pages and counting.


Doris :bow: had the great idea to start the thread last year.

And thanks to her, lotsa OPs of the GS fan threads do include a video of the skater pronouncing her/his own name.

sabinfire :bow: produced edited versions of quite a few of the videos -- which are on his playlist:


Regarding Dubreuil:
Per Dave's request, she pronounces her own last name in the recent TSL interview.​
 
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Guillaume is pronounced GEE-YERM. There is no L sound in double L's in French.

actually it isn't. the "aume" is kinda pronounced like in the English word "home" just with no "h" sound. But you are right there is no L sound either.
 
I think it'd be something lime this: ;)

'anna pɐgɐ'riɫaja

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TJgCyawSDnQ

both "o" seem to sound more like very short "a" and it's russian darl "l".

The usual pronounciation rule would be 'a' for the 'o' before the stressed syllable, but short 'u' sounds (as in 'up') for 'o' the other non-stressed ones. And that's how I'm hearing it from the announcer as the 'reel' seems to be the stressed syllable.

But recognizing there are regional variations on stress and pronunciation of unstressed 'o', toss it out to our Russian colleagues to advise on how Anna is saying her family name.
 
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Guillaume is pronounced GEE-YERM. There is no L sound in double L's in French.

to be precise

the G here is HARD

and the second syllable is more in the O family not E and definitely no R
G (hard G) EE - YO' m
 
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the O sound is guillaume is made with the lips and the O in HOME in English comes from the inside of the mouth... so they are slightly different in openness of the vowel.
actually it isn't. the "aume" is kinda pronounced like in the English word "home" just with no "h" sound. But you are right there is no L sound either.
 
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The usual pronounciation rule would be 'a' for the 'o' before the stressed syllable, but short 'u' sounds (as in 'up') for 'o' the other non-stressed ones. And that's how I'm hearing it from the announcer as the 'reel' seems to be the stressed syllable.

But recognizing there are regional variations on stress and pronunciation of unstressed 'o', toss it out to our Russian colleagues to advise on how Anna is saying her family name.

So...

pɐga'ri:ɫaja? pʌga'ri:ɫaja?

Something alongg these lines...:)
 
It is interesting that most female Russian last names emphasize the third-last syllable, yet we Westerners love emphasizing the second-last one. It makes for a lot of incorrect pronunciations.
e.g. LipnitSKAAAAAAya instead of LipNEEEEEtskaya and SharaPOOOOOOOOva instead of ShaRAAAApova.
It's fascinating how one method of syllable emphasis could sound so good in one language and so wrong in another.
 
It is interesting that most female Russian last names emphasize the third-last syllable, yet we Westerners love emphasizing the second-last one. It makes for a lot of incorrect pronunciations.
e.g. LipnitSKAAAAAAya instead of LipNEEEEEtskaya and SharaPOOOOOOOOva instead of ShaRAAAApova.
It's fascinating how one method of syllable emphasis could sound so good in one language and so wrong in another.

So glad you confirmed this for me! My friends all tell me I pronounce these names wrong! :laugh: Never could get them to say the ballerina Natalia MaKArova's name right. Finally just gave up and accepted MakaROva.
 
I feel like I should mention the spelling of Kaetlyn Osmond's first name in this thread, a unique spin on a very common name. When I first read it years ago, it looked like a typo to me, but now it's grown on me and "Katelyn" seems like the typo. ;)
 
to be precise

the G here is HARD

and the second syllable is more in the O family not E and definitely no R
G (hard G) EE - YO' m

Let me confirm something.

A hard G is like in the words Go, Grand, Give.

A soft G is like in the words Gee, Giant (more of a J sound)

Is that correct?
 
Let me confirm something.

A hard G is like in the words Go, Grand, Give.

A soft G is like in the words Gee, Giant (more of a J sound)

Is that correct?

Yes, but the soft 'j' sound is an English soft G.

A French soft G as in Georges or Geneviève is the same sound as the sound in pleasure and azure that linguistics seem to identify as 'zh'. But I have yet to meet an English speaker that can decode the correct sound from 'zh' unless coached. And many Francophones I know just live with their names being pronounced with the 'j' sound.

BTW as far as my ear can hear the sort French G is extraordinarily close to the 'zh' sound in Russian that causes many English speakers confusion. To my personal regret it usually gets translated from the Cyrillic as zh as in Zhenya....
 
GS itself has an entire thread full of links to videos of skaters pronouncing their own names. Eighteen pages and counting.

Doris :bow: had the great idea to start the thread last year.

And thanks to her, lotsa OPs of the GS fan threads do include a video of the skater pronouncing her/his own name.

sabinfire :bow: produced edited version of quite a few of the videos -- which are on his playlist:

Regarding Dubreuil:
Per Dave's request, she pronounces her own last name in the recent TSL interview.​

Thanks for letting us know.:thank:

Do you think that we can persuade the GS moderators to make this one of the threads that sits permanently at the top of the references?
 
You want the craziest name ever? he we go.. former Russian ice dancer and now choreographer of Tutberidze team:

Daniil Gleykhengauz

It's actually not that crazy, just a double transliteration of a German surname. The original was likely written as Gleichenhaus, which is not too uncommon (as google indicates) surname of German origin.
 
Yes, but the soft 'j' sound is an English soft G.

A French soft G as in Georges or Geneviève is the same sound as the sound in pleasure and azure that linguistics seem to identify as 'zh'. But I have yet to meet an English speaker that can decode the correct sound from 'zh' unless coached. And many Francophones I know just live with their names being pronounced with the 'j' sound.

BTW as far as my ear can hear the sort French G is extraordinarily close to the 'zh' sound in Russian that causes many English speakers confusion. To my personal regret it usually gets translated from the Cyrillic as zh as in Zhenya....

One of the many things I learned on this board is that, sort of conversely, the zh in the transliteration of Chinese names is pronounced like English j (soft g). Zhang (in earlier schemes spelled Jiang) is pronounced, well, Jiang (pretty close to "Jong" to my ear.)

Caroline Zhang has gotten used to being announced as Caroline "Zang" (rhymes with bang).
 
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