Alert: The new honey on Fox Soccer Report makes my ears bleed

Eurosnobs?!

1. I live in Chicago.
2. I was not born nor have spent longer than a week in Europe.
3. Just because someone says Milan rhyming with can does not make it right. It is also not I-raq or I-ran. Just because 80% of the morons on the news pronounce it that way, does not make it right.

I am just tired of people mis-pronouncing names and then claiming that they are not wrong. A name is a name and the way it is supposed to be pronounced is the way it is supposed to be pronounced. I also get annoyed when people say Indiana-polis instead of Indian-apolis. I am not a Eurosnob. I am a learn-how-to-pronounce-the-name-the-way-it-is-supposed-to-be-pronounced snob.

 

FYP.

I'll give ya an example. Here in Michigan we have a small town, also named Milan... except the locals pronounce it MY-lin. I've lived here 25 years now and it STILL friggin' hurts my ears every time.

 

ok so just wondering - should we then pronounce Milan like the Italians do since it's an Italian city? Same for Seville, Bucharest, Moacow, and Salonika.

Personally I think pronouncing it Muh-LAHN is akin to saying Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. Or even Man Yoo. You can do it, but expect the reprecussions from the pronunciationistas.

 

Hey, if you choose to pronounce it as the natives, more power to you. But at least use the proper English translation of the word. Not some bastardized version of it.

For example, Iraq and Iran. There is absolutely no reason to call it I-raq and I-ran. The entire world knows that they are Iraq and Iran. While you may not pronounce it as the natives, use the most accepted version of the word around the world. It goes for Munich, Milan, Bucharest, Iraq, Iran and whatever other country/city you can think of. If you say Internazionale thats great. But Inter Milan is a widely accepted English version of the name of the club. Mee-Lahn may be the way the natives say it, but Mi-Lahn is also the widely accepted English version. Mi-Lan rhyming with "can" is wrong.

If someone was incapable of saying Mee-Lahn, because of certain language issues, its one thing. But most languages don't have any issues with that word. For example, arabs can't say Pepsi, they say Bebsi, because there is no P in arabic.

But that is not the case here. I-raq, I-ran, Mi-lan are all mispronounced.

And what I don't understand is that why should it not be made a big deal!? If you constantly mispronounced my name, I would sure as hell be annoyed. Its not that complicated. Figure out the right and accepted way to say it. And say it.

 

No it's not. Check a dictionary.
Mi-Lahn is acceptable, but it is a secondary usage, used mostly by Eurosnobs and fashionistas.

 

Yes. And the news guys also say I-raq and I-ran. Does not make it right.

So it seems that everyone in the rest of the world and about 80% of America are Eurosnobs and fashionistas. Because so far, she is one of the few people I have heard pronounce it that way in the past 5 years I have been here. I also find it hilarious that your original argument seemed to be annoyed by some judgement passed down by "eurosnobs." All the while calling anyone who disagrees with your opinion "eurosnobs" and "fashionistas." Rather hypocritical, no?

 

I'm generally only annoyed by the self-righteous when they are wrong, but I'm glad I brought some fun to your day.

I doubt 80% of America pronounces Milan they way you do, but even if they did, that wouldn't make the other 20% wrong.

Check out this classic rhyme:

I'm too sexy for Milan
too sexy for Milan
New York and Japan.

Right Said Fred couldn't be more right.

 

if it's not the native pronunciation it's all mispronounced no matter what is accepted. Who is to accept it if not the residents of the city/country. It's accepted to say Inter Milan because we in the english speaking world decided it so. It's still wrong no matter what is accepted. Hell, Eye-Rak is probably accepted even though it's wrong.

My point is - no matter what is accepted or not, it's shouldn't be our place to adjudicate on the most proper wrong pronunciation. Tallest Midget Syndrome. (pun intended)

 

on the tally board tonight: Inter's Manchini and Celtic's Tony Mau-bray

also Leixoes - but that's a tough one and she got close. Degree of difficulty

 

Yeah, I try to say it the native way, if I am aware of it, and I can pronounce it. Eye-raq and eye-ran, really boils my blood. It makes absolute zero sense and there is no reason to mispronounce the name when you can just as easily correctly pronounce it.

Milan on the other hand, is not really as big a deal. And like I said earlier, it was kind of a pointless argument. I honestly, think of the entire pronunciation game in the following way: Do the natives get annoyed by the way you pronounce their city/country name? Obviously, I don't know the answer to that question for every city or country. But it is a learning process and if I am corrected, I am corrected only once. One of the main reasons why mispronunciations of the names bother me is because my own name is not American. I have heard it pronounced a million different ways. Some are acceptable to me, others are not. I don't mind correcting you, but if you keep using some bastardized version of my name, I am most likely going to get annoyed.

Nevertheless, if you are on a show talking about football, least you can do is start pronouncing the names right. Whether its club names or player names.

I do kind of disagree with your tallest midget argument, however. Ideally, you would pronounce it the right way, but if you are not going to/not aware/can't pronounce, use the lesser wrong version. Which would be the widely accepted version.

 

Isn't Mancini kind of tricky too? I think the Italian pronunciation of Mancini (as in Roberto Mancini) is Manchini. Italian speakers please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

It is Manchini as far as I am aware. But Man-see-ni has been used quite often by the FSC guys. Funny thing is, for the right pronunciations, all they would have to do is turn on the sound during a serie a game. The commentator gets them right, usually.

 

right, but this Mancini (the player - ex of Roma) is Brazillian. Same deal with Lucio.

I guess I should have specified the player, how quickly I forget that old Scarfy was there 2 years ago.

 

and where I think the parallel breaks down is that you are the single authority on how your name is said.

and I don't know that there is a right way other than the native way. everything else is a compromise with different authoritative bodies having different arguments of which is correct. Holland vs The Netherlands is another one. or the somewhat silent g in Afghanistan.

I dunno, this is just how I feel when I hear people refer to Seville in a country where none of the dialects call it Seville. Or those who still say "Bombay" or "Burma" or even "Zaire"

 

hah. I totally still say Bombay and Burma.

 

Sure, but even FC Bayern uses "Bayern Munich" on their official English web site.

 

Well, it was founded by an Englishman, after all.

 

On a lighter note, there used to be a US sports radio host who would intentionally mispronounce teem and player names during his show and it was actually quite entertaining - Wake Forest has always been 'Wacky' Forest to me ever since

 

Surely not the same guy who would say "Jimmy Bo-heem" or "Mike Kree-zoo-ski" or "Landon Chastadonnaham"

 

It's always good to know, I'd say. Thanks to this I just learned about Warsaw (Var-sha-va). And I doubt if anyone will expect you to say Roma or Torino or

But back to the player names and Ms. Baldasera. I'm starting to think it's less about knowing the right pronunciation and more just a tortured reading of the script. Somewhat like Carlos Machado and Nabil Karim. The other FSR-ites seem much smoother in their reading, not needing to stop and start over or anything. I noticed tonight she mangled Diomansy Kamara's name once - calling him Karama. Maybe she was used to filing reports and/or working without a script in the past. I believe even though the Report may not be live, it's shot as live.

Not an easy job, I know. I'd probably mangle a few lines If I were reading that prompter and trying to force a smile and listening to the director in my ear and trying to stay calm and keep that makeup from forming a river of sweat running down my cheeks. That's why I come here and bitch instead

 

She might get better as she gets more practice. Or at least I hope!

 

Last night:
River Plate became River Pla-te. Said it that way more than once.

 

At least she's keeping you guys occupied and out of trouble. Thumbs up!