How To Say my name! Pronunciation thread

[BlueRoads]

I thought we could gather pronunciations of rider's names - and maybe also place's names. (First of all it would help me if I ever make that commentary try and secondly) there are often questions about it, as last seen in the Rob Hatch thread. We have members from many different countries with many languages here, so... you're the experts. I imagined a list with names that we find difficult or often mistreated, in either phonetic spelling (IPA) or with an explanation like "Hitch is rhyming with witch".

I am going to start with a slightly random list of names that I would think are difficult and you can explain them or add other names that you know well about or would like to get right. You can also tell us about the accentuation of a certain name which bothers you.

Jakob Fuglsang
Jonas Vingegaard
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig
Kasper Asgreen
Søren Kragh Andersen
Mikkel Bjerg
Michael Mørkøv

Wout Poels
Jasper Stuyven
Oliver Naesen
Tim Merlier
Jolien d'Hoore
Ide Schelling
Nils Eeekhoff
Gijs van Leemreize
Steven Kruijswijk
Christine Majerus
Cian Uijtdebroeks

Giacomo Nizzolo
Vincenzo Nibali

Warren Barguil
Alexis Vuillermoz
Anthony Turgis
Benoît Cosnefroy
Clément Champoussin

Tao Geoghegan Hart
Chloe Dygert
Matteo Jorgenson
Elizabeth Deignan

Mihkel Räim

Marc Hirschi - like English here-she
Felix Großschartner
Emanuel Buchmann - Buch: [buːx]
Maximilian Schachmann - Schach: [ʃa⁠x]

Primož Roglič
Matej Mohorič
Luka Mezgec

Kamil Małecki
Katarzyna Niewiadoma
Stanisław Aniołkowski

Julen Amezqueta
Sergio Higuita
Jhojan García

Alexandr Riabushenko

Amaro Antunes
João Almeida

Markus Hoelgaard

Toms Skujiņš

Peter Sagan

Zdeněk Štybar

I can update the list sometimes or you can copy and update.

 

[RedheadDane]

There was a site somewhere once with sound-files of all the names. Unfortunately, I can't find it...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Cyclist name pronounciations

I recently found this website called forvo.com which is a place where you can submit words in any language and then people who speak that language can record a pronounciation of the word. I found that there were several cyclist names added to the database so I thought it would be interesting if...

forum.cyclingnews.com

 

[Publiuszam]

I am happy that donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft is not a rider name.

 

[RedheadDane]

I am happy that donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft is not a rider name.

I'm happy it's not a word!
It's... not a word, right?

 

[Bonimenier]

I'm happy it's not a word!
It's... not a word, right?

Talk:Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

Germans are too efficient to waste space with blank characters.

 

[Poursuivant]

Ron Hatch approves this thread

 

[Lequack]

Maybe the commentators can stop calling Mohoric as Mohorovic.

 

[Volderke]

Wout Poels: first the W like in 'wind'. Next 'out' . So W-out. Pools.
Jasper Stuyven: first the J like in 'you'. a like in 'car'. Sper you pronounce as spur. So J-a-spur. The uy in Stuyven is the hardest part. Try here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Er6tODzxI
. Once you got the 'uy', St-uy-ven is easy.

Who's next

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

Wout Poels: first the W like in 'wind'. Next 'out' . So W-out. Pools.
Jasper Stuyven: first the J like in 'you'. a like in 'car'. Sper you pronounce as spur. So J-a-spur. The uy in Stuyven is the hardest part. Try here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Er6tODzxI
. Once you got the 'uy', St-uy-ven is easy.

Who's next

Lol, what? She pronounces 'ui' and then proceeds to make a different sound in the examples.

 

[ice&fire]

The Dutch 'uy' in Stuyven is pronounced the same as in Cruyff, so I've been doing it wrong for longer than I'm willing to acknowledge.

 

[carolina]

The guys from GCN+ say João Almeida's name very similar to the correct pronounciation. The main difference is in the "ão" part. The ~ makes it a nasal sound, english speaking countries usually can't get those right.

Ruben Guerreiro's name is actually worst, because they say Guerreiro with a spanish pronounciation.

 

[bNator]

Matej Mohorič could be quite a challenge - especially because emphasis is very unnatural to English speakers.

Matej is pronounces with as clean T as possible (as in tea, for instance), J is pronounced as Y in you and most importantly, emphasis is on E not on A. Same with Tadej.

Then in Mohorič, R should be pronounced “the Rob Hatch way”, as hard as possible. Think of Hatch’s pronounciation of Izaguirre. Č is pronounced like “chewing”. And emphasis is on the first O. Usually, commentators will wrongly put emphasis on the second O.

 

[tobydawq]

Let me repeat myself from from two years ago regarding the pronunciation of Vingegaard:

It's a compound word.

Vinge means wing and is pronounced like it's spelled. Stress the first syllable. The v is like an English v, the i is like the i in "wing", the "ng" sound is pronounced like "ng" in wing and the e is not silent but pronounced like the e in the English "the".

Gaard means farm and is pronounced a bit like the English "law" but with stød, making the word end sound like a finish and a shorter sound than law. And of course with a hard g instead of l.

 

[tobydawq]

Asgreen: Stress the first syllable (A is pronounced like in "and"). Green is NOT pronounced like the colour! The vowel sound is similar to the one in "the" (when followed by a word starting with a consonant).

Fuglsang: The first G is mute. The stress is on the first syllable. Sang is pronounced like the French "sang" or "sans", meaning that there are no G-sounds at all. And no; there does not magically appear another L in the middle of "sang" when you pronounce the name...

Mikkel Bjerg: The first name has emphasis on the first syllable and the second kind of drowns, meaning that the E is not pronounced. Bjerg is perhaps a bit more difficult to explain but the final letter is not pronounced like a hard G but rather a V.

Michael Mørkøv: Well, don't transform the Ø's into O's and pretend he is Russian. The two Ø vowels are not pronounced the same way (but it's hard to be more accurate than that). And Michael is not like Michael Jackson, he isn't American either.

Søren Kragh Andersen: First name; Don't pronounce the E! Second name; it sort of rhymes with the English "bow" as in the curtsey thing, not the weapon thing which is apparentely pronounced differently but it also is pronounced with stød (which is a Danish way to finish words that apparently is not used in any other language). Third name; Don't pronounce the D!

Ludwig: Emphasis on first syllable, D is soft, W is like V in English.

Nibali: Stress first syllable.

Nizzolo: Stress second syllable.

Sagan: Stress first syllable but DO NOT Americanise it. It's sound should be like the a in car.

 

[RedheadDane]

Love the description of how to pronounce "Mørkøv".
"Not like that, and differently."

 

[Anderis]

I can tell you how to pronounce any Polish name but I find it redundant (and hard to explain in English which has completely different and inconsistent phonetics). Polish is phonetically consistent so if you try any free text-to-speech online you should get close enough. If you have more specific questions than that, feel free to ask.

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

I can tell you how to pronounce any Polish name but I find it redundant (and hard to explain in English which has completely different and inconsistent phonetics). Polish is phonetically consistent so if you try any free text-to-speech online you should get close enough. If you have more specific questions than that, feel free to ask.

I know Polish is consistent, but damn those 'włwczswł' clusters scare the hell out of me.

 

[Anderis]

I know Polish is consistent, but damn those 'włwczswł' clusters scare the hell out of me.

Don't worry, I'm great with consonants but sometimes the vowels of Germanic languages are like dark magic to me.

 

[davidsonduke]

One I don't know about is Daniel Martinez. I have heard it pronouned two different ways by the same commentator on the same day.

Mar-TEEN-ez
or
MAR-tin-ez

Which is correct? I would assume the first pronunciation, but I've heard the second one more often on cycling telecasts.

 

[saganftw]

every italian name has to be accompanied by hands movement

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

One I don't know about is Daniel Martinez. I have heard it pronouned two different ways by the same commentator on the same day.

Mar-TEEN-ez
or
MAR-tin-ez

Which is correct? I would assume the first pronunciation, but I've heard the second one more often on cycling telecasts.

Emphasis on the second syllable, not the first: it should be spelled Martínez (the accent indicates divergence from the normal stress on last syllable for a word ending in z), and because he is South American, the final sound is an S, not a Z (or a th).

 

[Ricco']

The guys from GCN+ say João Almeida's name very similar to the correct pronounciation. The main difference is in the "ão" part. The ~ makes it a nasal sound, english speaking countries usually can't get those right.

Ruben Guerreiro's name is actually worst, because they say Guerreiro with a spanish pronounciation.

Remember how they pronounced Machado's name? Something like "makádu". Portuguese combinations are a pain in the a** sometimes.

 

[saganftw]

i find it interesting that english speakers have more trouble pronouncing Zdeněk than Štybar, i often hear Zednek even in other sports (biathlon), anyway iirc commentators get Štybar almost right, but Š is pronounced as german sch, so its Sch - ti (as in tip or tin) - bar like iron bar for example

the problem is of course "ně", i guess the closest thing is how you pronounce "new" but without "w" and you add "e" like in "red" on top of that