Pronunciation of Russian names

[uakari]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

someone tell me if you pronounce kwakye as chuah-chee?
and kwadwo????

[gh]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

BBC researchers told me to use Kwa-chee, which I do.

Kwadwo is a name from one of the largest West African groups. As such, I have no reason to believe (nor have I ever been told otherwise) that it's anything other than how it looks in English, which is kwod-woe. Particulalry since her parents were from Ghana.

Wouldn't surprise me if her German teammates use Kvod-voe, of course. And easily possible she has adopted that, since the children of immigrants frequently adopt local usage.

[nevetsllim]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How does one pronounce Kazankina properly? Would it roughly be Ka-zank-in-a instead of Kaz-an-ki-na?

[NotSoOrdinary]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

Wonder why my post was deleted? {Things That Make U Go, Hmmmm..}

All I stated was, Gh is never wrong. About anything. Ever. So, OP what is the point of questioning his pronunciation?

[gh]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How does one pronounce Kazankina properly? Would it roughly be Ka-zank-in-a instead of Kaz-an-ki-na?

I never had the opportunity to need to, but taking a flyer at this point if it came across my desk I'd say kah-ZAHN-kee-nah

[DrJay]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

Actually, we don't know for sure that the Russian TV guy got it right with CHI-cher-av-a. Is he any better than his English-speaking counterparts?

For all we know, even as we speak, on a Russian track board, some guy may be typing, "that idiot Boris Badenov, he can't even pronounce Chicherova's name right!"

That'd be Larry Rawsonislov.

[Conor Dary]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How about the Welsh names? They are not all Jones and some of them come from places like Llareggub.

[uakari]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

everybody knows THE authority on pronouncing russian and foreign names is carol lewis. she's even better than hammond or sunderland.

[Dilan Esper]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How does one pronounce Kazankina properly? Would it roughly be Ka-zank-in-a instead of Kaz-an-ki-na?

I never had the opportunity to need to, but taking a flyer at this point if it came across my desk I'd say kah-ZAHN-kee-nah

I can't remember who told me this (it might have been John Hendershott when he was at the Mt. SAC meet in the late 1980's), but I believe you are correct.

[nevetsllim]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How does one pronounce Kazankina properly? Would it roughly be Ka-zank-in-a instead of Kaz-an-ki-na?

I never had the opportunity to need to, but taking a flyer at this point if it came across my desk I'd say kah-ZAHN-kee-nah

That pretty much confirms what I thought (even though I'm not that good at writing names phonetically :wink: )

[Grazerism]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

Russian stress is largely unpredictable, that's for certain. The stress on feminine surnames should fall on the same syllable as in the masculine forms. In the case of Chicherova, hers is pronounced in four syllables, Chi-che-ro-va, with the stress on the i ("ee").

To illustrate 3's point: If Blanka Vlasic marries Ivan Ukhov and takes his name, she becomes Blanka Uhkova, pronounced OO-kuh-va, not oo-KO-va. (Their son jumps 2.49, their daughter 2.13.) If she married the unfortunately unsung Russian 4x400 anchorman Denis Alekseyev, she becomes Blanka Alekseyeva, pronounced A-lex-SAY-yay-va, not A-lex-say-YAY-va. (Their kids have trouble deciding which event to pursue.)

[Alan Shank]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

How does one pronounce Kazankina properly? Would it roughly be Ka-zank-in-a instead of Kaz-an-ki-na?

I never had the opportunity to need to, but taking a flyer at this point if it came across my desk I'd say kah-ZAHN-kee-nah

It's either ka-ZAN-ki-na or ka-zan-KI-na; I've heard it both ways, but not spoken by a Russian. There are a lot of Russians living in the Sacramento area, so maybe I can find somebody to help with this, since it appears I'm not going to get any response from rusathletics.com.

Since this thread is already far afield from athletics, let me relate an interesting (to me) occurrence from the Daegu trip. When we were getting on the bullet train in Seoul, an Asian gentleman helped us find a place for our luggage in the car. He was with his wife and two daughters. I thought they were Chinese or Korean. We sat down in front of them, and all of a sudden I heard a burst of perfect Russian from the woman. I mean, we might as well have been in Moscow! I asked her (in Russian) where they were from, and she said, "Russia". It was so bizarre. I studied Russian from 1963 to 1970 and met quite a few Russians, and also visited Russia in 2005 after the Helsinki WC, but I never met anyone from one of the Asiatic republics, so it just seemed so bizarre to hear these people speaking Russian. The couple were old enough that they must have grown up in the Soviet Union. I wanted to ask them which republic they were from, but they were involved in their own conversation, so I decided not to interrupt them. Of course, they might very well have been from the Russian republic, but it was just so unexpected.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA, USA

[Flumpy]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

everybody knows THE authority on pronouncing russian and foreign names is carol lewis.

I'm pretty certain John Regis would give her a run for her money. He was a master of pronounciation, especially with the British team.

[berkeley]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

BBC researchers told me to use Kwa-chee, which I do.

Kwadwo is a name from one of the largest West African groups. As such, I have no reason to believe (nor have I ever been told otherwise) that it's anything other than how it looks in English, which is kwod-woe. Particulalry since her parents were from Ghana.

Wouldn't surprise me if her German teammates use Kvod-voe, of course. And easily possible she has adopted that, since the children of immigrants frequently adopt local usage.

That is certainly true of Irish-Americans, who have successfully shifted the emphasis from the first to the second syllable of many Irish names (MA-ho-ney -> ma-HO-ney, etc., etc.). Not to mention strange (to an Irish person) pronunciations of names such as Aisling (which is a Gaelic word meaning "dream" and is pronounced ASH-ling rather than Ice-lin).

[Grazerism]

Re: Pronunciation of Russian names

A lot of shifting around in the multi-culti world of European opera. I've known more than one American AN-dree-uh who gives up and accepts being called an-DRAY-uh. But I don't like being called SHTEF-fen OH-ven here in Germanland. I can't understand colleagues who over years never insist on having their names pronounced correctly. An American guy named Boley has been in Kassel for many years. His name is pronounced BOH-lee, but I never once heard it pronounced correctly at the theater (BOH-lay, boh-LAY, boh-LYE, etc.).