One for the commentators

[Armchair Cyclist]

Will our Anglophone commentators be rendering the successor of Caisse d'Epargne as though they are talking about Greta Garbo and Clark Gable, or with at least some acknowledgement of Spanish linguistic patterns?

MOOvey star or MobeestARR?

 

[La Pandera]

I guarantee Liggett will butcher it. To this day he still calls Valverde "Alessandro". Either he's got some loss of brain matter
or he thinks its "cute" ala Roll's "Tour day France". I have lost so much respect for these characters over the past 5 years.😡

 

[boardhanger]

.........don't get me started on the Amercian side of commentating. But I suppose if you have an accent it will always come through no matter. Have you ever heard Pedro Delgado say Robert Miller or Bradley Wiggins or Djamolidine Abdoujaparov in his accent? Terrible no attempt made !! And my fellow Irish man Sean Kelly was always and still is pronounced Kiiley 😀

 

[theyoungest]

That's just the way it goes. Anglophones and foreign names: butcher them to your heart's content.

 

[ingsve]

I get that people will usually have an accent when trying to pronounce a diffrent language because they will unknowingly be using the phonological rules of their native language but names are usually a lot easier to get right. All you need to do is just copy how they themselves say it. Copying speech is a lot easier than learning pronounciation and some of these commentators have been around for many years so you would think that they ought to have picked up a thing or two but that does not seem to be the case a lot of the time. Many have even had professional careers and been exposed to all the european languages in the peloton for years.

Hushovd for example has been around for over 10 years now and I still haven't heard many people pronounce his name correctly. Everyone says it with an sh-sound but it's actually pronounced hus-hovd.

 

[Christian]

That's just the way it goes. Anglophones and foreign names: butcher them to your heart's content.

It goes the other way around too.

In Europe you have Kaydell Eevens (Luxembourg) and Lontz Armstrongue, Jan Üllrick, Eric Sabélle (France), as well as Ryder Heschdehall. Most people just don't care as much I think ... we know we're still awesome 😀

Hushovd for example has been around for over 10 years now and I still haven't heard many people pronounce his name correctly. Everyone says it with an sh-sound but it's actually pronounced hus-hovd.

I have also heard Thor and Thur. Another good one is Kanstantsin Sivtsov/Sioutsou, Alexandre Vinokourov ....

 

[auscyclefan94]

Cardel Evarns

Alessandro valverde. I was laughing so hard when I heard Liggett say that in the finish to Plumelec (2008).

Fabian Canceralla.

 

[jens_attacks]

Alessandro valverde. I was laughing so hard when I heard Liggett say that in the finish to Plumelec (2008).

what a terrible mistake🙄.it's quite the same.

french commentators screaming:

"robbbbieee meh-keh-when!meh-keh-when va gagner!"

now that's funny.

 

[auscyclefan94]

what a terrible mistake🙄.it's quite the same.

french commentators screaming:

"robbbbieee meh-keh-when!meh-keh-when va gagner!"

now that's funny.

Liggett's voice went high pitched which was quite amusing and made it funny.

 

[Beech Mtn]

I watched the 2008 Giro over Christmas break, and Phil and Paul repeatedly referred to Andre Greeple.

Also, Phil got confused at one point and misidentified Ricco as Levi Leipheimer. 😱

 

[fasthill]

Another good one is Kanstantsin Sivtsov/Sioutsou, Alexandre Vinokourov ....

It's time they stop calling Menshov Menchov.

 

[The Hitch]

I doubt Sean Kelly will even try seeing as he calls the Vuelta the tour of spain the Tour the tour of france and the Giro, well you get the point.

But we dont really have too many names in cycling that are so hard to pronounce. Not at the top really. Is it wrong when some of them they say nibeli or Segan?

On a related subject, i was watching eurosport skiing today and they had a female commentator. Maybe they should try that on cycling. In fact i would like more guests. There is so much that could be done during boring sprint stages but usually they just talk about crap. Whenever Backsted is on he just talks about bike components for hours on end.

If they looked at this forum they would find so much subject material, rather than the usual crap.

 

[boardhanger]

Irish man Phillip DEIGNAN!! always gets me laughing as he's about 20 miles from my home town.....even I cant pronounced it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I have also heard Thor and Thur. Another good one is Kanstantsin Sivtsov/Sioutsou, Alexandre Vinokourov ....

Ah yes, all the problems with transliterating Cyrillic names. This is a problem that comes because the name is usually transliterated according to the language they first encounter in Latin characters - hence Menchov instead of Menshov, and Vinokourov instead of Vinokurov, because that's how the French transliterate it, or Pliuschin instead of Plyushkin because that's how the Moldovans transliterate it. Sivtsov/Siutsou is a strange case because his name in the original Belarusian is Канстанцін Сіўцоў. The ў is a letter that doesn't exist in Russian, and is a very fast 'u' sound, most akin to English 'w'. A correct pronunciation would be more like "Siʷ-tsoʷ". Russians, who don't have this ў, or countries that did have the 'w' sound but over time have developed it into [v] (such as German), will pronounce his name "Sivtsov", while countries that do have the approximant [w] will pronounce his name more correctly. After moving from Itera and Lokomotiv, he moved to race in Italy. Italian does have the [w], and usually uses a 'u' in its transcription, hence 'Siutsou'.

I watched the 2008 Giro over Christmas break, and Phil and Paul repeatedly referred to Andre Greeple.

Also, Phil got confused at one point and misidentified Ricco as Levi Leipheimer. 😱

That's a pet hate of mine with people reading German. Ei is pronounced like "eye", ie is pronounced like "ee". How difficult is it?

During the 2009 Worlds David Harmon consistently pronounced Marcel Kittel's name as if he was related to Harvey Keitel.

Paulo Martins on Portuguese Eurosport is one of the worst though. Robert Zhe-sing-keh? Who the hell is that?

 

[Michielveedeebee]

thank god for Belgian commentators 😀 Michel Wuyts, Karl Vannieuwkerke, José De Cauwe and Tom Steels are amazing 😀

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Michel Wuyts is amazing. Some classic expressions like 'en nu ... met de versnelling', but everybody's favourite, 'ujujujujujuj'... I like Steels as well.

 

[theyoungest]

Michel Wuyts is amazing. Some classic expressions like 'en nu ... met de versnelling', but everybody's favourite, 'ujujujujujuj'... I like Steels as well.

Dear God, Steels is awful. Can put you to sleep in a second. I just hope he won't have the same effect in his new job as Quick-Step DS.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Dear God, Steels is awful. Can put you to sleep in a second. I just hope he won't have the same effect in his new job as Quick-Step DS.

Steels awful ? how so ? His analysis of trains and sprints are great. He's pretty good at 'reading' the race. I like him

 

[theyoungest]

Steels awful ? how so ? His analysis of trains and sprints are great. He's pretty good at 'reading' the race. I like him

I think his intonation and vocabulary are just incredibly boring. Sorry, can't stand the guy 😉 Wuyts might have less knowledge of the pure technicalities of racing, but he makes up for it by his semi-literary qualities.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Dear God, Steels is awful. Can put you to sleep in a second. I just hope he won't have the same effect in his new job as Quick-Step DS.

Have you ever listened to Séan Kelly's commentary? Kelly is one of the best in the business at reading a race, his knowledge of the sport is second to none, and it's fantastic to have him in the commentary booth, but he makes Steels sound like he's wired on caffeine 100% of the time. Eventually, you get used to their commentary style and concentrate on what they're saying instead of how they're saying it.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

I think his intonation and vocabulary are just incredibly boring. Sorry, can't stand the guy 😉 Wuyts might have less knowledge of the pure technicalities of racing, but he makes up for it by his semi-literary qualities.

now I see what you mean🙂 his intonation is indeed dull 😛
some legendary words of Michel: Tommeke Tommeke Tommeke wat doe je nu ?

 

[theyoungest]

Have you ever listened to Séan Kelly's commentary? Kelly is one of the best in the business at reading a race, his knowledge of the sport is second to none, and it's fantastic to have him in the commentary booth, but he makes Steels sound like he's wired on caffeine 100% of the time. Eventually, you get used to their commentary style and concentrate on what they're saying instead of how they're saying it.

There's a limit to that. Sean Kelly at least has an endearing accent going for him 😉

 

[hrotha]

Menchov should be Menshov? What the hell. Why hasn't he corrected people mispronouncing his name? He lives in Navarre, for god's sake - he has to hear everyone saying his name wrong all the time. Are Russians just so accostumed to everyone raping their names that they aren't bothered anymore?

 

[jens_attacks]

Menchov should be Menshov? What the hell. Why hasn't he corrected people mispronouncing his name? He lives in Navarre, for god's sake - he has to hear everyone saying his name wrong all the time. Are Russians just so accostumed to everyone raping their names that they aren't bothered anymore?

that's because menchov sounds cooler than menshov.and "the pope" sounds waaayy cooler.if he's not bothered,you shouldn't be either.

 

[Christian]

I don't know any of the Belgian commentators who people were talking about earlier, although occasionnally I watch races on RTBF2 but then that's French. I don't know their names but I find them pretty good.

My favourite is France 2's team though: Thierry Adam; Laurent Jalabert and the other Laurent (forgot his last name) on the motorbikes, Gérard Holtz, the guy who always does the historic parts ... too bad Laurent Fignon passed away, he was great too.

Then Eurosport Germany's speakers are pretty good too, Ulli Jansch and Carsten Miegels. Unfortunately they often split up, and one will do Tirreno while the other does Paris-Nice for example. They also have a third one now from Southern Germany by the sounds of it, but I don't like him as much.