SAN-TAN-DARE

[Orsulak4Prez]

17 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

At least the ones who like being annoyed and making sure everyone knows it.  I think most Americans would quickly adapt to pronouncing stuff correctly.  Most Americans don't travel abroad, but we're no longer in a world where it's a very long and perilous voyage to somewhere that doesn't speak American English.

When I was in Japan people would call me Jona-san instead of Jonathan.  That was great, they were trying, even if they didn't have the pronunciation quite right. That's what I'd hope Americans can do: try, instead of making up a nickname for everyone whose name is slightly challenging.

Good point. It's the guy's name, we should pronounce it correctly. Especially the announcers...I understand messing up the name of a visiting player here and there since there are so many players for them to learn, but this guy is on our team.

[Enjoy Terror]

46 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

When I was in Japan people would call me Jona-san instead of Jonathan.  That was great, they were trying, even if they didn't have the pronunciation quite right. That's what I'd hope Americans can do: try, instead of making up a nickname for everyone whose name is slightly challenging.

In my eighth grade social studies class they showed us a video of an Eastern European child named Yannick, who moved to the US, capturing his struggles with the language and culture. In particular he has to read a book aloud to his class and gets stumped on the word “thick”— the “th” sound is not common in most languages.

Im sure you’d get your name butchered in most countries!

Anyhow, the kids make fun of him relentlessly and force him to eat a banana, which he does, peel on. Twenty years later I still quote the obnoxious bully— “Eat it Yannick!”

[atomic]

17 hours ago, Yossarian said:

The pronunciation is correct if you are speaking Spanish.  The "e" in Spanish is pronounced like the long "a" in English and the "-er" at the end of a word is usually emphasized.

I guess it boils down to what one wants to hear - the Anglicized version of names or the way they are pronounced in their native tongues.  If they were going to do that for all of the Spanish names in baseball (native pronunciation), it would get obnoxious for most American viewers.  In fact, most American broadcasters wouldn't be able to properly pronounce a lot of the names (like rolling the "r" in Spanish names that begin "r" or have a double "r" in the middle, for example).  It seems like if you are going to do this for one, you should do it for all.  Otherwise, stick with the Anglicized pronunciations and be done.

I wonder how Harry Caray would have pronounced his name?

They should pronounce it the way the players want their names pronounced,

[DrungoHazewood]

12 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

In my eighth grade social studies class they showed us a video of an Eastern European child named Yannick, who moved to the US, capturing his struggles with the language and culture. In particular he has to read a book aloud to his class and gets stumped on the word “thick”— the “th” sound is not common in most languages.

Im sure you’d get your name butchered in most countries!

Anyhow, the kids make fun of him relentlessly and force him to eat a banana, which he does, peel on. Twenty years later I still quote the obnoxious bully— “Eat it Yannick!”

Icelandic has two separate letters just for th sounds - the thorn (þ) and the eth (ð). All 330,000 Icelanders could pronounce Jonaðan!

[Frobby]

9 minutes ago, atomic said:

They should pronounce it the way the players want their names pronounced,

This reminds me of a great riff by Brian Regan on trying to guess whether women named Caroline want their name to be pronounced “Caro-LYNN” or “CaroLINE.”

(Woman, in snarky voice): “It’s CaroLINE, Brian!   CaroLINE!”

(Him, indignantly): ”It’s BriAHNN!!!”

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Frobby said:

This reminds me of a great riff by Brian Regan on trying to guess whether women named Caroline want their name to be pronounced “Caro-LYNN” or “CaroLINE.”

(Woman, in snarky voice): “It’s CaroLINE, Brian!   CaroLINE!”

(Him, indignantly): ”It’s BriAHNN!!!”

As much as I think it's good form to try to correctly pronounce someone's name, if you're a seventh-generation Marylander and you name your kid something like R'qualme-Mercutio you have to understand that your kid is getting a nickname and you're going to be justifiably laughed at.  And you should probably be pummeled with a cardboard tube.

[JourneyFan]

 

[Yossarian]

3 hours ago, atomic said:

They should pronounce it the way the players want their names pronounced,

I agree.

 

[Yossarian]

4 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

At least the ones who like being annoyed and making sure everyone knows it.  I think most Americans would quickly adapt to pronouncing stuff correctly.  Most Americans don't travel abroad, but we're no longer in a world where it's a very long and perilous voyage to somewhere that doesn't speak American English.

When I was in Japan people would call me Jona-san instead of Jonathan.  That was great, they were trying, even if they didn't have the pronunciation quite right. That's what I'd hope Americans can do: try, instead of making up a nickname for everyone whose name is slightly challenging.

Out here in the west, there tend to be a lot of Pacific Islanders (Hawaiians, Tongans, Samoans) on college football rosters.  Most press guides will have pronunciation guides for broadcasters.  Even with that, they get butchered - even by the home team in-stadium PA announcers.  I don't think it is unique to "lazy" Americans.  I have listened to basketball broadcasts of foreign leagues with American players and they do the same thing.  They tend to pronounce the American names using their native language rules of pronunciation.