Mispronounciation of names by announcers mega-thread

[huhe888]

Time to start this mega-thread in order to call out the offenders who repeatedly butcher names of players on soccer TV programming in North America, regardless of the language of broadcast.

The format for posting:

Name being butchered
How the announcer mispronounced the name
Name of announcer
Show or match where the mispronounciation occurred

Butchering of players' names has reached epidemic proportions.

Many of the announcers don't realize that butchering names 1) is a sign of disrespect for the viewers and 2) show the viewers that they are too lazy to take a few seconds to learn how to pronounce a name correctly.

==


Let's see which announcer will come up with another way to butcher "Samuel Eto'o" in the next 48 hours.

Let's see which announcer will once again butcher "Peter Vagenas" in the next 7 days.

[TarheelJTK]

Time to start this mega-thread in order to call out the offenders who repeatedly butcher names of players on soccer TV programming in North America, regardless of the language of broadcast.

The format for posting:

Name being butchered
How the announcer mispronounced the name
Name of announcer
Show or match where the mispronounciation occurred

Butchering of players' names has reached epidemic proportions. Many of the announcers don't realize that butchering names 1) is a sign of disrespect for the viewers and 2) show the viewers that they are too lazy to take a few seconds to learn how to pronounce a name correctly.

==


Let's see which announcer will come up with another way to butcher "Samuel Eto'o" in the next 48 hours.

Let's see which announcer will once again butcher "Peter Vagenas" in the next 7 days.

I'd love to post about the butchering of those two names but I've heard them butchered so many times that I'm not even sure how to pronounce them. With a full slate of games this weekend on GolTV and FSC this thread will expand rapidly.

[Real Corona]

I will just add a quick note from the other thread.

From the Fox Espanol broadcast of the Ukraine-Belarus match.

Sheva was pronounced Cheba

Alexander Hleb was renamed Klef.

[nancyb]

J.P.'s butchering of Borussia Mönchengladbach's right up there. He pronounces it something like Bruesha Munchin Glad Back.

[Alex_K]

Time to start this mega-thread in order to call out the offenders who repeatedly butcher names of players on soccer TV programming in North America, regardless of the language of broadcast.

The format for posting:

Name being butchered
How the announcer mispronounced the name
Name of announcer
Show or match where the mispronounciation occurred

Butchering of players' names has reached epidemic proportions.

Many of the announcers don't realize that butchering names 1) is a sign of disrespect for the viewers and 2) show the viewers that they are too lazy to take a few seconds to learn how to pronounce a name correctly.

==


Let's see which announcer will come up with another way to butcher "Samuel Eto'o" in the next 48 hours.

Let's see which announcer will once again butcher "Peter Vagenas" in the next 7 days.

If it's of any consolation - that's hardly a North American phenomenon. Seeing German announcers try to pronounce English or Spanish names has it's very own charme as well.

[Real Corona]

If it's of any consolation - that's hardly a North American phenomenon. Seeing German announcers try to pronounce English or Spanish names has it's very own charme as well.

During the World Cup '06, my personal favorite was van der Vaart. Which for some reason, always came across to my American friend (who doesn't understand German) as "Thunder Fart."

[danielmak]

Of course many folks on this board are quick to blast US-based announcers, but treat anyone with a British accent as a god. If you watched the France-Serbia game, you witnessed how a truly gifted Bundesliga announcer was out of his element when not calling German games: he could not identify Claude Makele, Christian Karembeu, or Lilian Thuram when the camera panned to the ex-players sitting in the stands and then proceeded to claim that he didn't know for certain because the shot was too wide (when it was a close up).

[Real Corona]

Of course many folks on this board are quick to blast US-based announcers, but treat anyone with a British accent as a god. If you watched the France-Serbia game, you witnessed how a truly gifted Bundesliga announcer was out of his element when not calling German games: he could not identify Claude Makele, Christian Karembeu, or Lilian Thuram when the camera panned to the ex-players sitting in the stands and then proceeded to claim that he didn't know for certain because the shot was too wide (when it was a close up).


I honestly don't expect announcers to get the names right, but I am going to laugh when they do it!

[Bianco Celeste]

The guys at FSR might not like this but perhaps incorporating some of their pronouncers in here is a good idea.

I know those guys have a hard enough time dealing with names in upto 10 different languages so a little help is always appreciated.

I'd like to know as well!!

Let's start with the easy one that EVERYONE says differently:

Peter Vagenas - last time I heard it - VYE-eh-nahs.

Samuel Eto'o - EH-two

[cmblfc]

It's Dirk Kuyt (KOUT) not Keech, not Koyt, not anything like that.

[Real Corona]

Today during the Liverpool-Marseilles match the announcer referred to Benayoun as Mascherano on three different occasions, even going for about a full minute after any reasonable TV viewer could see it was Benayoun. At one point, Benayoun was running for the ball into the corner and was the only Liverpool player there. The announcer said, "Mascherano going in for the ball." Then after it was clear that Benayoun was the only guy there, "Benayoun in there as well."

[Real Corona]

Setanta called Metalist Kharkov (metal list) Literally the two words seperate (car-kov)

It should be meta-least harkov


He calls Besiktas, Bezhigtas

[huhe888]

Samuel Eto'o - EH-two

Not even close.

Eto'o is from Cameroon, which uses French to come up with phoentic translations of native/tribal names.

Because the stress on French words is on the LAST syllable, one would use an apostrophe to indicate that the stress should on the 2nd to last syllable instead of the last syllable.

Therefore, Samuel Eto'o is supposed to be pronounced:

sah-moo-EL eh-TOH-oh

Canadian announcers, a majority of whom have studied French in high school, have less of an excuse to explain why they would butcher French names the way American announcers, most of whom studied Spanish in high school, mangle up French names all the time.

[Bianco Celeste]

Therefore, Samuel Eto'o is supposed to be pronounced:

sah-moo-EL eh-TOH-oh

When you hear it actually pronounced that way - let us know.

I've NEVER heard it pronounced like that - EVER.

[Real Corona]

When you hear it actually pronounced that way - let us know.

I've NEVER heard it pronounced like that - EVER.


I have a friend from Cameroon and I don't remember him ever saying it that way either.

[glennaldo_sf]

Joaquin

[richo]

When you hear it actually pronounced that way - let us know.

I've NEVER heard it pronounced like that - EVER.

I'm almost 100% sure that the GolTV Spanish announcers always pronounce it that way. The spelling seems self-explanatory to me.

[CRSvideo]

Major problem with this idea is that the people who complain about it the most are people who usually take the British anouncer's pronunciation as gospel, but very often the British anouncers are themselves butchering the names. For instance, Brazilian and Lyon striker Fred. His name when pronounced correctly is supposed to rhyme with "wedge", not "bed". I remember a game Max Bretos was calling and a bunch of people posted on Big Soccer complaining about his pronunciation of Ronaldinho's name because he pronounced the "d" like a "j", but the "d" is supposed to be pronounced like a "j" so Max actually had it right.

People who complain on these threads really aren't interested in the announcers pronouncing the name correctly, they just want them pronounced like they're British.

[richo]

Major problem with this idea is that the people who complain about it the most are people who usually take the British anouncer's pronunciation as gospel, but very often the British anouncers are themselves butchering the names. For instance, Brazilian and Lyon striker Fred. His name when pronounced correctly is supposed to rhyme with "wedge", not "bed". I remember a game Max Bretos was calling and a bunch of people posted on Big Soccer complaining about his pronunciation of Ronaldinho's name because he pronounced the "d" like a "j", but the "d" is supposed to be pronounced like a "j" so Max actually had it right.

People who complain on these threads really aren't interested in the announcers pronouncing the name correctly, they just want them pronounced like they're British.
How correct. Brazilian and Portuguese names are consistently mispronounced. Nobody seems to know that the final o in Portuguese is pronounced like a long u. So it's not Roe-bee-nyoh, said correctly it's Roe-bee-nyoo. Portuguese is not pronounced like Spanish.

[soccerfreak9210]

Gerrard ... Isn't the emphasis supposed to be on the Gerr part and not the ard part? My english friend gets annoyed by that lol...

I've also heard Gilardinho ... HE'S NOT BRAZILIAN! its Gilardino... Italian is simple, pronounce everything!! ---- I think i've also heard the "g" like the sound it makes in the word glad-its supposed to be like the name giselle!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:p:p:p