Name Pronunciation of the Day

[SteveNJ]

Once a day, I will take out my copy of the NHL Pronunciation Guide and give you the official scoop on how to properly pronounce your favorite (and most hated) players' names.

First off, Montreal Canadien rookie forward Guilliame Latendresse:

GUI yhom La than dress

For requests, just send me a PM.

Hope you enjoy reading.

[CryWolf]

Once a day, I will take out my copy of the NHL Pronunciation Guide and give you the official scoop on how to properly pronounce your favorite (and most hated) players' names.

First off, Montreal Canadien rookie forward Guilliame Latendresse:

GUI yhom La than dress

For requests, just send me a PM.

Hope you enjoy reading.

Interesting idea. If that really comes from an official guide, I would have to disagree with it somewhat. I would say it is more like:

Gi-yohm La-tawn-dress

[SteveNJ]

That's the official guide. I garantee it.

Tonight, rookie star Evgeni Malkin:

ehv-gehn-ee Mahl-kuhn

[CryWolf]

That's the official guide. I garantee it.

Tonight, rookie star Evgeni Malkin:

ehv-gehn-ee Mahl-kuhn

Okay, but I still think they have the pronounciation wrong based on the way it was written. I would be very curious to know how they interpret the names of the two Canadiens goaltenders, because even here in Montreal, I've heard both of them pronounced different ways.

Cristobal Huet you would think, being from France would be pronounced 'Hue-way', and that's how most people say it here. However, I have heard that he actually pronounces his name contrary to what one would expect for a French name, as 'Hue-whett'

As for David Aebischer, I have heard Eh-bi-shure and Ah-bi-shure, but I think that the Swiss goalie pronounces his name as Ah-bi-sherr (or is it Eh-bi-sherr?). I'm curious what the guide states.

[Mach_9]

I wouldn't really go with a pronunciation guide for anything, especially European names. I don't know too much about french-canadian pronunciation, but most European's last names are entirely different than the phonetic pronunciations we use in the states. Ovechkin says his own name "aye yesh kin", for example.

[CryWolf]

I wouldn't really go with a pronunciation guide for anything, especially European names. I don't know too much about french-canadian pronunciation, but most European's last names are entirely different than the phonetic pronunciations we use in the states. Ovechkin says his own name "aye yesh kin", for example.

Who puts these guides together anyhow? And where do they get what they call the 'official' pronounciation of a player's name? Maybe it is because of these guides that I had to listen to 15 years of US broadcasters calling the legendary goaltender by the name of Patrick Roo-wah, instead of the correct (and unpronouncable for US broadcasters) rolled 'r' of 'rrrwah.' I would have even preferred if the announcers just skipped the french rolled R sound and went with 'wah' to hearing him called Patrick 'roo-wah'

[Mach_9]

Who puts these guides together anyhow? And where do they get what they call the 'official' pronounciation of a player's name? Maybe it is because of these guides that I had to listen to 15 years of US broadcasters calling the legendary goaltender by the name of Patrick Roo-wah, instead of the correct (and unpronouncable for US broadcasters) rolled 'r' of 'rrrwah.' I would have even preferred if the announcers just skipped the french rolled R sound and went with 'wah' to hearing him called Patrick 'roo-wah'

That's funny too, because every announcer, commentator, etc. in the league calls Derek Roy "Derek Roy" when he has stated in numerous interviews and press conference Q&A's that his name is also 'rrrwah' (or however you would pronounce it). I wonder what the guide says about him?

[lafountain]

That's funny too, because every announcer, commentator, etc. in the league calls Derek Roy "Derek Roy" when he has stated in numerous interviews and press conference Q&A's that his name is also 'rrrwah' (or however you would pronounce it). I wonder what the guide says about him?

This was something he stated in an interview last season during the playoffs.

"Ah, just say 'Roy,'" he said Saturday, referring to the English pronunciation. "But it doesn't really matter to me."

Somewhat the same thing I go through when I go to appointments and stuff when people want to pronounce my name LaFontaine though my family goes by the English pronunciation LaFountain (Fountain as in water fountain)

[Mach_9]

This was something he stated in an interview last season during the playoffs.

"Ah, just say 'Roy,'" he said Saturday, referring to the English pronunciation. "But it doesn't really matter to me."

Yeah, I decided not to mention that part. He did tell them he doesn't care and that they can say Roy, but that's because they've been doing it to him forever. He has said on numerous occasions though that the real pronunciation and the name everyone in his family uses is ... what wolf said.

[SteveNJ]

Who puts these guides together anyhow? And where do they get what they call the 'official' pronounciation of a player's name? Maybe it is because of these guides that I had to listen to 15 years of US broadcasters calling the legendary goaltender by the name of Patrick Roo-wah, instead of the correct (and unpronouncable for US broadcasters) rolled 'r' of 'rrrwah.' I would have even preferred if the announcers just skipped the french rolled R sound and went with 'wah' to hearing him called Patrick 'roo-wah'

Not sure, I know Mike Emrick runs it, but I'm not sure of much else.

Today's name:

Just to prove the poster wrong who thought the Euro names'd be bad,

It's Alexander Ovechkin:

Alex oh-VEHCH-kihn.

[Mach_9]

Not sure, I know Mike Emrick runs it, but I'm not sure of much else.

Today's name:

Just to prove the poster wrong who thought the Euro names'd be bad,

It's Alexander Ovechkin:

Alex oh-VEHCH-kihn.

Yeah, but that doesn't prove me wrong... that's not how Alex says his own name. Go to ccm.com and watch the intro trailer introducing all of the "CCM Players". If they still have it up, it's one of the many instances where he pronounces his name without a hard "V" or "Ch" sound in it. I'm sure the guide is the official guide that a lot of announcers use it. I'm not questioning you on that. It's just that because somebody makes something 'official' doesn't mean it's always correct. My sister in law is 100% Czech, from Jihlava and has only been here a few years, since meeting my brother in Prague. Almost every Czech name in the league she pronounces differently than the announcers do. She's a big hockey fan too and has met several big Czech stars like Hasek and Jagr. The point though is not that I think you're wrong, or lying and I'm actually pretty well in agreement with the pronunciations as far as phonetic, americanized pronunciations go, but I just don't think it's the authentic pronunciation that the players themselves would agree with. keep in mind, Ovechkin's name, in his native language, isn't even spelled the same way - so it's americanized to start with. One way or the other, it isn't something we necessarily have to agree on and it is an interesting thing to post each day, so I look forward to seeing more. I'm in no way meaning to undermine your efforts or start an argument, I'm just pointing out the potential for discrepancies between the guide and real life. It will more than likely always exist when guides of this sort or published.

[Crimson]

I can hear where the misconception is. In Russian, the "O" is pronounced more like an "Ah." The "E" that's commonly used in the Russian alphabet (the one that looks like the English "E", not the backwards rounded E) is pronounced "yeh". Because the "V" is immediately followed by the "yeh" sound, it makes the "V" sound almost inaudible, but it's there.

The "ch" sound is produced by what looks like the wine-glass-shaped "y", but is softer than a hard "CH" like "cheese." Not as soft as the "sh" (which is also represented by a single letter in Russian), but softer than what we're accustomed to. Thus, "Ovechkin" is pronounced "Ahvye(sch)kin."

(not to be confused with the dipthong "shch", which is ALSO represented by a single letter )

His Russian jerseys all have the letters that would be written literally as "Ovechkin" in English. It's just that the pronunciation of the "O" and "E" are significantly different between Russian and English.

Similarly, Sergei Fedorov's name isn't "FEH-doh-rov" but "FYEH-do-rov."

[Mach_9]

Exactly - thank you for explaining it Crimson. I am very good at recognizing pronunciation when looking at the names, but I don't have a good grasp on the Russian alphabet. I did know the V was in there, followed by the "yeh" sound, but it's so barely audible that I figured it would be dificult to explain. You did a much better job than I would have, owing to your knowledge of the russian alphabet. Perhaps you could teach me some? I'd be very interested.

[Crimson]

About all I can do is read/write the alphabet -- all my Russian vocabulary and grammar went right out the window after high school

If you do a search for "Russian alphabet", there are often really good charts that appear. The trickiest part of the Russian alphabet are the little sound modifiers (they look like the English lower-case "b") -- in Russian, they're called the "myakhiznak" and "tvyordisznak" (or some approximation using the English alphabet), and I could never get those right.

But the softenings and palatizations often make Russian names sound differently than they're spelled. I once saw a misinterpretation of Fedorov's name where someone thought it was actually "Fyodorov" in Russian. That was more likely due to the "yeh" sound.

Afinogenov is actually pretty straight forward from Russian to English