http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ The Magazine's recommended daily allowance of news, culture and your letters. en Copyright 2009 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:18:59 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Jo Kim of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. This week has seen riots and fighting between the Han Chinese and Uighur ethnic groups in Urumqi. China's President Hu Jintao cut short his visit to the G8 summit to tackle the crisis. It is important to note that BBC Pronunciation Unit policy is to recommend a standardised and systematically anglicised version of the local pronunciation. (In the case of Mandarin Chinese, we do not recommend tones in our anglicised pronunciation because we do not expect monolingual English broadcasters to recognise and reproduce sounds and features which do not exist in English.) However, if there is an English form of a place name (e.g. Florence), then we recommend this rather than the form in the native language. We also recommend established anglicisations where they exist (e.g. Paris). Note: where only one syllable appears, it should be stressed. Otherwise, stressed syllables are shown in upper case. The common anglicisations of Urumqi are oor-uum-TCHEE (-oor as in poor not pour, -uu as in book, -tch as in church) and oor-UUM-tchi. The original Uighur pronunciation is closer to: ue-ruem-TCHEE (-ue as in French vu). The Mandarin Chinese form of the place name (Hanyu Pinyin: Wūlǔmùqí), which is based on the Uighur pronunciation, is pronounced closer to: woo-LOO-moo-TCHEE (-oo as in boot). Hu Jintao, President of China, is pronounced KHOO jin TOW (-kh as in Sc. loch, -j as in Jack, -ow as in now) L'AQUILA is pronounced LACK-will-uh (-note first syllable stress) BEIJING is pronounced bay-JING (-j as in Jack, this is the established anglicisation) XIN JIANG is pronounced SHIN ji-AANG (-sh as in ship, -j as in Jack, -aa as in father) UIGHUR, the ethnic group, is pronounced WEE-guhr (-w as in wet, -ee as in meet, this is the established anglicisation) Han Chinese is pronounced han (-h as in hot, this is the established anglicisation; the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation is closer to khan, -kh as in Sc. loch) Hui, another Chinese ethnic group, is pronounced khway (-kh as in Sc. loch, ay as in say) Li Zhi, Urumqi's Communist party boss, is pronounced lee juh (-j as in Jack, -uh as a in ago) To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/how_to_say_chinese_names_and_e.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/how_to_say_chinese_names_and_e.shtml How to Say Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:18:59 +0000 An occasional guide to words and names in the news from Christine Haunz and Jo Kim of the BBC Pronunciation Unit Football has featured prominently in the news recently as the transfer window closed last week and clubs and their managers parted company. Monday saw the shock departure of Luiz Felipe Scolari from Chelsea FC. Today, it was confirmed that Guus Hiddink, who has close ties to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and is current manager of the Russian national team, has been appointed as interim manager until the end of the season. The pronunciations of these names are as follows (stressed syllables are in upper case): Luis Felipe Scolari: loo-EESS fell-EE-pi skol-AR-i (-ee as in meet, -i as y in happy, -ol as in olive, -ar as in car). Guus Hiddink: KHUESS HIDD-ink (-kh as in Scottish 'loch', -ue as in French 'vu'). You can also hear this name pronounced GUUS (-uu as in book) in some English contexts. Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich: ruh-MAAN ar-KAAD-yuh-vitch ab-ruh-MOH-vitch (-uh as a in ago, -tch as in church, -oh as in no). Other footballers recently in the news include the Confederation of African Football's Player of the Year Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal's last minute transfer Andrey Arshavin and Brazilian midfielder Kaká. Emmanuel Adebayor: em-an-WELL add-eb-igh-YOR (-igh as in high) Andrey Arshavin: an-DRAY ar-SHAA-vin (-ay as in say, -ar as in car, -aa as in father) Kaká: kack-AA (-aa as in father) Finally, the pronunciations of some names in football which have inspired debate: The established anglicisation of Dirk Kuyt's name is DURK KOWT (-ur as in fur, -ow as in now). Xabi Alonso's own pronunciation of his name is SHABB-i al-ON-soh (-sh as in ship, -al as in pal, -oh as in no). The name of Czech goalkeeper Petr Čech is pronounced PET-uhr CHEKH (-uh as a in ago, -ch as in church, -kh as in Scottish 'loch'), and the pronunciation for José Bosingwa's name is zhoo-ZAY bozz-EENG-gwuh (-zh as s in measure, -oo as in boot, -z as in zoo, -ay as in say, -ee as in meet, -ng-g as in finger). To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/02/how_to_say_names_in_the_beauti.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/02/how_to_say_names_in_the_beauti.shtml How to Say Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:54:11 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Christine Haunz of the BBC Pronunciation Unit As the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is once again taking place in Davos, some disagreements might arise as to how the name of the host location should be pronounced: is it DAV-oss (o as in top) or dav-OHSS (oh as in no)? In fact, both pronunciations are in use: the latter is the local German pronunciation, while journalists and attendees commonly use the anglicisation DAV-oss. Among the attendees are the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, and China's Wen Jiabao, as well as Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who was involved in a heated exchange with Israel's Shimon Peres on Thursday. The pronunciations of their names are as follows (with stressed syllables in upper case): 1. Vladimir Putin: vluh-DEE-meer POO-tin (uh as "a" in ago, eer as in deer -- not PYOO-tin) 2. Wen Jiabao: WUHN ji-aa BOW (uh as "a" in ago, j as in Jack, ow as in now) 3. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: REJ-ep TIGH-yip AIR-doh-an (j as in Jack, igh as in high, air as in hair, oh as in no) 4. Shimon Peres: shee-MONN PERR-ess (err as in merry) The managing director of the World Bank, formerly the finance minister of Nigeria, is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, pronounced ng-GOH-zi ock-ON-joh ee-WAY-luh (ng-g as in finger, oh as in no, o as in top, j as in Jack). Finally, leaving the Swiss Alpine resort for the shores of north-east England, where French footballer Charles N'Zogbia is said to be unhappy that his boss, Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear, can't pronounce his name - having referred to him as "Insomnia". The pronunciation of the player's name used in English contexts is normally n-ZOG-bi-uh (uh as "a" in ago). In France, however, he is usually referred to as SHAARL en-zoh-BYAA (oh as in no, by as in beauty). To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/01/how_to_say_davos.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/01/how_to_say_davos.shtml How to Say Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:00:56 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Christine Haunz of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. With the Olympics in full swing, and the British team winning medals in little-known disciplines and in unfamiliar locations, here's how to pronounce some of these places and events. Syllables given in capital letters should be stressed. The sailing events take place in Qingdao, pronounced CHING DOW (-ch as in church; -ow as in now). Tsingtao (also the name of a popular brand of beer), is a more old-fashioned romanised spelling, but pronounced in the same way. A number of British successes took place in Qingdao - a gold medal was won for Yngling racing; an Yngling being a keelboat designed by a Norwegian designer, and named after the Norwegian word for "young man". The English pronunciation is ING-ling (-ng as in sing). A sport with Japanese roots is Keirin, a cycle sprinting event won by Britain's Chris Hoy at the Laoshan (LOW SHAN, -ow as in now) velodrome. The Japanese pronunciation of this discipline is close to kay-RIN (-ay as in day); however, the established anglicisation used by cyclists is KEER-in (-eer as in deer). Another gold medal for Britain was won at the Bird's Nest, or Niaochao (NYOW CHOW, -ny as in manual; -ow as in now; -ch as in church), by Christine Ohuruogu - the first British female athlete to win Olympic gold over 400m. As her former linguistics lecturer confirms, her name is pronounced oh-hoo-ROO-goo (-oh as in no). The Bird's Nest was also the scene of drama involving the Chinese 110m hurdler Liu Xiang, who four years ago had won China's first men's track and field gold, but had to pull out of this year's event due to injury. His name is pronounced LYOH shi-AANG (-ly as in million; -oh as in no; -sh as in ship). For further pronunciation advice on Chinese names, including Beijing, click here. To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/08/how_to_say_olympic_terms_and_n.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/08/how_to_say_olympic_terms_and_n.shtml How to Say Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:38:15 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Jo Kim of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. The Church of England's ruling General Synod met at the Lambeth conference this week and several related words and names have been in the news. Some of our recommended pronunciations are given below. Stressed syllables are shown in upper case. 1. The Christian name of Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is pronounced ROH-uhn (-oh as in no). 2. The family name of Dr. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York is pronounced SENT-uh-moo (-e as in bet, uh as a in ago), with stress on the first syllable. Back in the late 80s, Dr. Sentamu was a contributor to the World Service Religions programmes and told the BBC with regards to the pronunciation of his name, "left moo, right moo, Sentamu." 3. DIOCESE is pronounced DY-uh-sis (-y as in sky). The plural DIOCESES is a little bit more controversial. Dictionaries give several pronunciations such as DY-uh-siss-iz (-y as in sky), DY-uh-seez (-y as in sky, -ee as in meet) and DY-uh-seez-iz (-y as in sky). The word has generally been pronounced DY-uh-seez (-y as in sky, -ee as in meet) by members of the General Synod during the recent Lambeth conference, although a few DY-uh-seez-iz (-y as in sky) could be heard. 4. EPISCOPAL is pronounced uh-PISS-kuh-puhl (-uh as a in ago). 5. The word 'synod' is given as SIN-uhd (-i as in bit, uh as a in ago) in Oxford English dictionary and Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. SIN-od (-o as in hot) is sometimes given as a variant pronunciation in dictionaries. To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/07/how_to_say_2.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/07/how_to_say_2.shtml How to Say Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:14:41 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Martha Figueroa-Clark of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. The devastating earthquake in China has affected many towns and cities in the Wenchuan county in the south-western Sichuan province. Some of our recommended pronunciations for Chinese place names and people's names are given below. Note: where only two syllables appear, each should be stressed. Otherwise, stressed syllables are shown in upper case. BEICHUAN - bay chwann (-ch as in church; -a as in hat) BEIJING - bay jing (-j as in Jack). The pronunciation bay-ZHING (-zh as "s" in measure) is common but is not as close to the Chinese pronunciation) CHENGDU - chung doo (-ch as in church; -u as in "cup") CHONGQING - chuung ching (-ch as in church; -uu as in book) DEYANG City - duh yaang (-uh as in the; -aa as in father) DUJIANGYAN City - DOO ji-aang YENN (-j as in Jack) HU JINTAO, president - KHOO jin TOW (-kh as in Scottish loch, not lock; -j as in Jack; -ow as in now) MIANYANG - myenn yaang (-my as in mute; -e as in get; -aa as in father) MIANZHU - myenn joo (-j as in Jack) RUIJIN - ray jin (-ay as in day; -j as in Jack) SICHUAN (Szechwan, Szu Ch'uan) - suh chwann (-uh as in the; -ch as in church; -a as in hat) WEN JIABAO, prime minister - WUHN ji-aa BOW WENCHUAN - wuhn chwan (-uh as in the) YA'AN - yaa an (-aa as in father; -a as in hat) XINHUA news agency - shin khwaa (-kh as in Sc. loch, not lock; -aa as in father) It is important to point out that the above pronunciations are anglicised and are not intended to reflect native Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. One important difference between our pronunciations and Chinese pronunciation is the absence of tones which are used in Chinese to differentiate meanings. For example, the Chinese syllable "ma" can mean four different things (mother, hemp, horse or to scold), depending on which tone is used. Monolingual English broadcasters are not expected to recognise, much less reproduce, this level of detail, which is why the Pronunciation Unit has a systematic way of anglicising Chinese syllables. For example, as the pronunciations for Mianyang and Mianzhu above demonstrate, the syllable "mian", is always rendered as "myen" in our anglicised system. Standard Mandarin Chinese characters tend to be systematically transliterated using the Pinyin romanisation system. This system uses the Latin alphabet to represent sounds. However, the spelling in English can sometimes be misleading when it comes to pronunciation. For example, the vowel letters a, e, o, u represent the following sounds: a (as in hat), aa (as in father) or e (as in get); uh (as in ago) or u (as in cup); uu (as in book); oo (as in boot) or ue (as in French vu) respectively. Similarly, the consonant letters h, j, q, x and zh represent the sounds: kh (as in Scottish loch), j (as in Jack, not "s" as in measure), ch (as in church); sh (as in shop) and j (as in Jack) respectively. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the correspondence between the romanised spellings of Standard Mandarin Chinese and their usual pronunciation in English but the examples above should give readers some idea of the way we treat certain Mandarin Chinese sounds in English. While it may seem confusing at first, our anglicised pronunciations follow a system which is simplified but consistent and, therefore, relatively easy for non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese to follow. To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/05/how_to_say_1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/05/how_to_say_1.shtml How to Say Wed, 14 May 2008 13:11:00 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Jo Kim of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. One of the names that has been frequently mentioned in the news of late is Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe. The Pronunciation Unit's recommendation of Tsvangirai's surname is chang-girr-IGH (-ch as in church; -ng-g as in finger; -irr as in mirror; -igh as in high). This recommendation has recently stirred up public and media interest, inside and outside the BBC (eg Matthew Parris' column in Thursday's Times), because of different opinions of how the Shona -tsv cluster should be pronounced in English. Although written with the same Roman alphabet, the -tsv consonant cluster in Shona is not equivalent to -tsv in English (as in the phrase "its vanguard" minues the "i"); Shona has what are commonly referred to as "whistling" fricatives ("s" and "z"), which sound and are produced differently from English "s" and "z". The "v" does not have the same quality as English "v"; for many Shona speakers, the "v" in -tsv is co-articulated; that is to say, the quality of the "v" adjusts to that of the neighbouring consonants. In the case of the anglicisation of foreign names, when the BBC is not able to verify the pronunciation preferred by the person concerned, we consider a number of factors before making a recommendation: the phonetics and phonology of the relevant language the opinions of native speakers on how they might expect it to be anglicised, and the ease of pronunciation for our broadcasters. Our original recommendation TSVANG-girr-igh was made following consultation with our colleagues in Network Africa. In 2000, a journalist, who personally knew Tsvangirai, contacted the Unit to advise us that chang-girr-IGH was a more preferable anglicisation (-ch as in church; with stress on the last syllable). We also consulted native speakers of Shona at the Zimbabwe High Commission who favoured the anglicisation chang-girr-IGH. Our Zimbabwean colleague also confirmed that while neither English "tsv" or "ch" sounds were equivalent to the Shona -tsv, producing the Shona -tsv cluster as an English "ch" (as in church) was acceptable. (To download the BBC Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/04/how_to_say_morgan_tsvangirai.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/04/how_to_say_morgan_tsvangirai.shtml How to Say Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:10 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor recently won Best Actor at the Olivier Awards for playing Othello. Finding the best pronunciation recommendation for his name has proved exceptionally complicated for us, and the story behind this illustrates our various research sources and methods. Our policy for personal names is, where possible, to recommend the pronunciation that the individual concerned prefers to be used by the BBC. If we can't speak to them directly (as has so far proved the case with Mr Ejiofor) and can't find any instances of them saying their own name, (perhaps in an interview or speech available online or in the BBC’s archives), we consult people who represent them or who know them very well. We rely on such people's goodwill in sparing their time to advise us, but we find they are usually happy to co-operate. With foreign names, we also consider the opinion of speakers of the relevant language, asking them how the name is pronounced in that language and also how they might expect it to be anglicised. This was our first source in the case of Chiwetel Ejiofor. His is a name of Nigerian Ibo origin, so we consulted an Ibo speaker in the BBC World Service Hausa section, who proposed the pronunciation chi-WAY-tell ejj-i-OH-for. Unsure whether this would be his own preference, especially as we had noticed different stress patterns when his name was used in English language contexts, we then spoke to two other sources; his theatrical agents and a press officer at the Donmar Warehouse where he has performed for many years. Both these sources know the actor well, and both have given us confident assurances that they are certain of the correct pronunciation. Unfortunately for us, they do not agree with one another – the former eventually recommended CHOO-wuh-tuhl IJJ-i-uh-for, the latter CHOO-wet-uhl EJJ-i-oh-for. Although they agree on stress placement, the differences that persist in vowel reduction and the vowel in the first syllable of the surname are not negligible. Attempts to reconcile these two pronunciations have so far proved unsuccessful, and so – very exceptionally for us – we must currently recommend both of them to our broadcasters. The ideal way to settle this once and for all would simply be to speak to the actor - so, if you’re reading this Mr Ejiofor, we would love to hear from you! http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/03/how_to_say_chiwetel_ejiofor.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/03/how_to_say_chiwetel_ejiofor.shtml How to Say Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:28:37 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Martha Figueroa-Clark of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. After recording a landslide victory, Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's chosen successor, has been elected President of Russia. The pronunciation of Medvedev's name presents quite a challenge to English speakers, as Hillary Clinton demonstrated when prompted to say the name on MSNBC recently (which you can watch here). As media coverage of the elections has shown, several pronunciations are already in use among British broadcasters, including muhd-VAY-dev and MED-vuh-dev (the latter is considered incorrect). The Pronunciation Unit's recommendation is DMEET-ri muhd-VYED-uhff (-uh as in the; -vy as in view; the final 'v' is devoiced so it sounds like 'f') but it was a challenge for us to decide exactly how we should render this name in English and, before we could decide on a definitive recommendation, we had to consider the following factors: -the native Russian pronunciation (which sounds close to myid-VYED-yiff; -my as in mute; -vy as in view) -the extent to which this name is likely be anglicised by non-native speakers of Russian (since his name will undoubtedly crop up frequently) -ease of production (will it be pronounceable in English?) and ease of perception (will it be clear to our audience who it is our broadcasters are talking about?) as well as -consistency - all of our advice incorporates systematic Anglicisations which are based on our knowledge of the phonology of the language in question. The above are just some examples of the issues we regularly have to consider when forming recommendations. In the case of Medvedev, we have had to compromise: we cannot expect non-Russians to pronounce this name in a perfectly Russian way because this would require broadcasters to have detailed knowledge of Russian pronunciation, which is not feasible. Having carried out detailed research and consulted with Russian speakers, including a Russian phonetician, we concluded that correct stress placement and reflection of the soft (palatalised) 'v' in the stressed syllable were the most important aspects to highlight in our anglicised pronunciation. The surname Medvedev stems from the Russian word for 'bear' medved' (with stress on the second syllable), so that it is important to retain this stress in the surname, hence our recommendation muhd-VYED-uhff. Listen to an interview with Martha Figueroa-Clark on Radio 4's Today programme here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/03/how_to_say_medvedev.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/03/how_to_say_medvedev.shtml How to Say Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:44:47 +0000 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/09/how_to_say_myanmar.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/09/how_to_say_myanmar.shtml How to Say Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:37:25 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. One of the pronunciations we have been asked to research this week is the name of Australian rugby league player Ben Czislowski, who found an opponent's tooth buried in his head. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also has a pronunciation unit , and we contact one another from time to time for advice. However, the time difference means that we often have to wait until the following morning for the definitive answer from Down Under, and if we cannot find any other evidence, we must make a suggestion until then. This was the case with Ben Czislowski. He was born in Australia, but his surname indicates Polish origins. The Polish pronunciation of the name would be chiss-LOF-ski, but the usual anglicisation would be chiz-LOW-ski (OW as in now). What we needed to find out was whether Ben himself uses a Polish or an anglicised pronunciation. Americans of Polish origin generally prefer to use the anglicised pronunciation, such as the directors of The Matrix, the Washowski brothers - pronounced wuh-SHOW-ski (ow as in now). Polish-Australians seem to be more variable, but we knew of one senior figure named Ziggy Switkowski who also prefers the anglicised pronunciation. With this in mind, we provisionally suggested the anglicised rather than the Polish pronunciation to our broadcasters when the story appeared in the BBC World Service, BBC Radio and News 24 on Tuesday. Alas, on Wednesday morning, we heard back from ABC and discovered we had gone the wrong way. One of their sports reporters in Brisbane confirmed that Ben uses the Polish pronunciation after all, although apparently something quite different had been used for his father's name in the past. Also, by this time, one of ABC's senior journalists had indicated the correct pronunciation in an interview. We changed our advice immediately, and the right pronunciation was used by the time the story came up in Wednesday's One O'Clock news. (For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/07/hoow_to_say_polish_names.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/07/hoow_to_say_polish_names.shtml How to Say Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:31:42 +0000 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Eva Liina Asu-Garcia and Martha Figueroa-Clark of the BBC Pronunciation Unit Every year, the BBC Pronunciation Unit compiles a Wimbledon guide – a pronunciation guide to the names of competing players - to aid our broadcasters. We thought we would include some pronunciation pointers for Czech, Slovak and Russian names, since there are several competitors from these countries and their names are often tricky for non-native speakers to pronounce. In Czech and Slovak (closely related West Slavic languages), primary stress is predictable: it falls almost invariably on the first syllable of a word. So, for instance, the Slovak tennis player Daniela Hantuchová’s name is pronounced DAN-yell-uh HAN-tuukh-ov-aa and the Czech player Iveta Benešová is IVV-ett-uh BEN-esh-ov-aa. The acute diacritic in Czech does not indicate stress; it actually indicates vowel length. Therefore, in the above surnames, the last vowel is a long but unstressed "a" sound (-aa as in "father"). It is important to retain the various diacritics in Czech and Slovak orthography as they represent a particular sound; loss of the appropriate diacritics results in incorrect pronunciations (e.g. Šafářová becomes Safarova, and is often incorrectly pronounced as saff-uh-ROH-vuh, instead of SHAFF-aar-zhov-aa, which is closer to the Czech pronunciation). In Russian (an East Slavic language), on the other hand, stress is largely unpredictable, although there are some rules governing the stress of Russian surnames (such as following the stress of the source word, often a noun, from which the surname is derived. For example, the surname Shishkin, pronounced SHISH-kin, is derived from "shishka" (SHISH-kuh), the word for "cone"). Some of the trickier Russian names in the competition this year are Alla Kudryavtseva (AL-uh kuud-ri-AF-tsuh-vuh) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (svuht-LAA-nuh kuuz-nuht-SOH-vuh). Contrary to popular belief, Sharapova is pronounced sharr-AA-puh-vuh (-arr as in "marry"; -aa as in "father", stress on the second syllable) in Russian but since the pronunciation shuh-ruh-POH-vuh is so widespread, and Maria Sharapova herself accepts this pronunciation, it has become an established Anglicisation. Our aim is to reflect the native pronunciation as closely as possible (eg retaining the native stress pattern) but, where an established Anglicisation has come about (as with Sharapova or Navratilova), BBC Pronunciation Unit policy is to recommend the Anglicised form. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/07/how_to_say_wimbeldon_names.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/07/how_to_say_wimbeldon_names.shtml How to Say Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:31:14 +0000 A guide to the words and names in the news from Eva Liina Asu-Garcia of the BBC Pronunciation Unit Over the past few weeks, several Estonian names have been in the international news in connection with the relocation of a Soviet era monument in Tallinn and subsequent riots and looting by part of the ethnic Russian population, as well as international cyber attacks targeted at the Estonian government’s, banks’ and newspapers’ websites. Also, last week, a new synagogue was opened in Tallinn to replace the one destroyed in WWII. In the context of all these events a few words about the pronunciation of Estonian, my native language, might be helpful. Estonian is a vowel-rich language; there are 9 vowels: A, E, I, O, U, Õ, Ä, Ö and Ü. Unlike in most other languages, vowels and consonants in Estonian can have three degrees of length: short, long and overlong. In spelling, however, only two lengths are marked - thus one letter as a rule denotes short and double letters either a long or overlong sound. The primary stress falls on the first syllable of each word. The name of the prime minister, Andrus Ansip contains only short vowels and is pronounced: UN-druuss UN-sip (-u as in "bun" in Southern British English, -uu as in "book"). Most of the vowels in the name of the defence minister Jaak Aaviksoo are long, and thus: YAAK AA-vick-saw (-aa as in "father", -aw as in "law"). President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is pronounced: TAW-muss HEN-drik ILL-vess. The Estonian language also has 36 diphthongs ie combinations of two vowels in one syllable. For instance, the surname of the Estonian ambassador to the United Kingdom Margus Laidre is pronounced: LIGH-druh (-igh as in "high"). (For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/05/how_to_say_difficult_estonian.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/05/how_to_say_difficult_estonian.shtml How to Say Mon, 21 May 2007 14:58:17 +0000 A guide to the words and names in the news from Martha Figueroa-Clark of the BBC Pronunciation Unit There have been a number of Portuguese pronunciations in the news recently. José Ramos-Horta, pronounced zhuuz-AY RAM-uush OR-tuh (-zh as s in "measure"; -ay as in "day"; -uu as in "book"; -uh as in "the"), won the Presidential elections in East Timor. In São Paolo, pronounced sow(ng) POW-loo in Portuguese but usually pronounced sowm POW-loh or sow POW-loh in English (-ow as in "now"; -oh as on "no"), up to one million people were expected to gather to watch Pope Benedict XVI canonise Brazil's first saint, Friar Antônio Galvão (pronounced an-TOHN-yoo gal-VOW(NG). But perhaps the most prominent news item concerns the disappearance of three year-old Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz (pronounced PRY-uh duh LOOSH; -y as in "cry"; -uh as in "the"; -oo as in "boot") in Portugal. Perhaps because of the orthographical (among other) similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, many English speakers assume that the pronunciation of Portuguese is the same as in Castilian Spanish. Recent examples of this are mispronouncing Portuguese Luz (above) as LOOTH (-th as in "thin") and pronouncing António Santana Carlos (Portugal's Ambassador to the U.K.), as an-TOH-ni-oh san-TAA-nuh KAR-loss, instead of a more Portuguese uhn-TON-yoo suhn-TAN-uh KAR-luush (-uh as in "the"; -oo as in "boot"; -uu as in "book"). Note that the pronunciation of Antônio/António in Brazilian and European Portuguese respectively is not the same, owing to different vowel qualities in the two varieties of Portuguese (indicated by ô and ó orthographically), as well as because of a tendency in European Portuguese to reduce vowels (e.g. pronouncing the first syllable of António as uhn- not an-), which is less common in Brazilian Portuguese. (For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/05/how_to_say_praia_da_luz.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/05/how_to_say_praia_da_luz.shtml How to Say Mon, 14 May 2007 15:39:33 +0000 A guide to the words and names in the news from Catherine Sangster of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. For defeated centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, the pronunciation is fraa(ng)-SWAA bigh-ROO. Ségolène Royal is say-go-LEN rwaa-YAL - we don't anglicise it to "roy-AL". For Nicolas Sarkozy we recommend nee-ko-LAA sar-koh-ZEE, preserving stress on the last syllable in line with our usual treatment for French. This surname is pronounced in a variety of ways in France, perhaps because of its Hungarian origins (the Hungarian surname Sárközy is pronounced SHAR-koe-zi - oe as in French "coeur"), but our research suggests that sar-koh-ZEE is the most widespread and most appropriate pronunciation for M Nicolas. In particular, people we consulted on this particular name in the French Embassy and in BBC's team of French monitors strongly disliked the "cozy" pronunciation with stress on the middle syllable, even in English-speaking contexts. (For a guide to our phonetic pronunciations, click here.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/04/how_to_say_french_presidential.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/04/how_to_say_french_presidential.shtml How to Say Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:26:42 +0000