Our Commentary on the Commentary!

[MaryClare]

I got some similar thoughts for the Irish. Looking at you Sean-that-doesn't-rhyme-with-bean.

But Irish uses the same alphabet as English. So it’s not really the same thing.

 

[IratePanda]

I wonder what languages they were thinking of when they decided the letter Q would be recognized as having a “ch” sound.

I'm not really sure, but the "q" gives my students lots of headaches. In their papers, they often refer to China's last imperial dynasty as the "Quing." In class discussion, they pronounce it "Kwing." (It's "Qing," pronounced "Ching.")

 

[rlayt]

I got some similar thoughts for the Irish. Looking at you Sean-that-doesn't-rhyme-with-bean.

Who would have thought Sidhe was pronounced like She?

 

[makam]

It's 2024. We have AI, robots might take over the World, and we cannot pronounce athlete's names correctly.

There is no reason for a data base that each athlete says his or her or their name and the recordings are available so that commentators can listen to the correct pronouncation.

Doesn't Rebeca Andrade say her name with an "h" sound at the front? Huh-becca essentially? Cuz none of the American commentators ever once said it like that. They were getting her last name right all week, but never her first.

 

[JDB]

When Chinese people Anglicize their surnames, they often choose spellings like "Chu" or "Chew". But the gymnasts' names are not Anglicized (i.e. meant for an Anglophone society). They're transliterated to whatever characters are allowed. And Chinese athletes choose straight pinyin without the tone markers.

 

[MaryClare]

When Chinese names are translated to the Russian alphabet, they are very phonetic based, but in the Latin alphabet they are not, especially not for the English language

 

[MaryClare]

Doesn't Rebeca Andrade say her name with an "h" sound at the front? Huh-becca essentially? Cuz none of the American commentators ever once said it like that. They were getting her last name right all week, but never her first.

Yes. BBC have been doing that and it’s just embarrassing

 

[JDB]

Doesn't Rebeca Andrade say her name with an "h" sound at the front? Huh-becca essentially? Cuz none of the American commentators ever once said it like that. They were getting her last name right all week, but never her first.

Tim Daggett has talked about how much time he spends learning to pronounce names. But he (nor most NBC commentators) does not bother learning Portuguese names for some reason.

 

[irichluck21]

As a reading (phonics/decoding) interventionist, I can assure you the English language is tricky and complex.

The EA vowel sound has various pronunciations:
SEA
BEAR
BREAD
STEAK
OCEAN
BEARD
EARTH
HEART

 

[rlayt]

We are used to our oddities of language so we don’t even realise they are odd.

 

[Big_rock_show]

Doesn't Rebeca Andrade say her name with an "h" sound at the front? Huh-becca essentially? Cuz none of the American commentators ever once said it like that. They were getting her last name right all week, but never her first.

Can confirm this. I lived in Brazil for awhile and dictation is rough. Like their currency is called a Real but pronounced “HAY-oww”. The hard R at the beginning of a word is not a thing from what I could understand.

 

[RAFIKI]

I like to read the comments on the live coverage general thread on the UK Guardian. The gymnastics ones from four year fans are fascinating. Someone was praising (presumably) Craig Heap’s accent and saying that gymnastics has the best technical commentary of all the niche sports.

 

[Caledi]

Doesn't Rebeca Andrade say her name with an "h" sound at the front? Huh-becca essentially? Cuz none of the American commentators ever once said it like that. They were getting her last name right all week, but never her first.

To me, there's a difference between pronouncing a name correctly within the phonology of the language you are speaking, and trying to pronounce it as if you are speaking the original language. I feel like commentators should do the former -- so for example in English they shouldn't try to say the tones in a Chinese name, and they should use an English "r" instead of a Russian/Portuguese/French/whatever "r". I actually think the guy who did the in-arena announcements at US meets like Scam did a good job with this.

 

[Big_rock_show]

Agreed. Almost like you’re translating the person’s name into your own language so your audience can better identify the performers.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

It's 2024. We have AI, robots might take over the World, and we cannot pronounce athlete's names correctly.

There is no reason for a data base that each athlete says his or her or their name and the recordings are available so that commentators can listen to the correct pronouncation.

There is a database! Every athlete’s Olympic profile has a recording of them
Pronouncing their name.

 

[irichluck21]

I work with Brazilian students and the hardest English letter sound for them is the R. The /r/ sounds is /h/ for them. In isolation my students tend to say /h/ for /r/. I have to model a lot for them as well as display multiple visuals for R such as rat, rabbit, roller skates, rooster. Even then it is difficult because rat in Brazilian Portuguese is "rato" and is pronounced "hato".

 

[makam]

I work with Brazilian students and the hardest English letter sound for them is the R. The /r/ sounds is /h/ for them. In isolation my students tend to say /h/ for /r/. I have to model a lot for them as well as display multiple visuals for R such as rat, rabbit, roller skates, rooster. Even then it is difficult because rat in Brazilian Portuguese is "rato" and is pronounced "hato".

But then what do Brazilian pirates sound like? Ahhhh just doesn't have the same impact as Arrrr does.

 

[brg09]

I've been catching up on the different events now that I finally broke down and got Peacock.

Watching women's subdivision 1 and Blythe is... knowledgeable but strangely robotic.

I feel like if you took the average of Laurie and Blythe you'd have the perfect commentator.

 

[Kittentoes]

I could have sworn in one of the previous days he called her "Kui Yuanyuan"

That wasn't just me then?

 

[Denn]

There is a database! Every athlete’s Olympic profile has a recording of them
Pronouncing their name.

I saw this and it was a really cool resource. Whoever got them all to record that way must be some kind of a Saint.