From the man himself.
(I presume it’s that, and not the “T” or the “Boyle,” that inspires doubt…)
The only reason I know how to pronounce “Ahmadinejad” or whatever it is, is that I watched the Presidential debates in 2008, and it came up in those a lot. I’m assuming that Obama and Biden pronounce it correctly (they’ve probably had language advisors who coached them on it), so I say it the same way they did.
Almost. “y” in Polish is more like a short “i” sound (but actually doesn’t exist in English, that’s the closest approximate I would say), not an “ee” song. An “i,” though is more like a clipped “ee.” “Z” followed by “i” is a “zh” sound, not a “z” sound. The “g” should be voiced, and terminal "w"s get devoiced in Polish.
So, more like:
ZBIG-nyeff bzheh-ZHEEN(y)-skee
The “(y)” represents a softening of the “n” sound, somewhat like the Spanish tilde-n.
Siobhan Fallon, an actress who’s been in tons of movies and on TV, though I always think of her as Edgar’s wife in Men In Black, and the compassionate prison guard in Dancer In The Dark.
I always thought it was Sigh-oh-ban, but because it’s a Gaelic name, and Gaelic is the most fucked-up language on the planet, it’s pronounced
sha-vaun
The fat guy from The Hangover.
Coach K. You know, the Duke men’s basketball coach. I’m not even gonna try and spell it, but I understand it’s pronounced “shuh-shef-ski”.
I used to get Ashton Kutcher’s last name wrong until I learned it rhymes with “butcher”. I used to pronounce it as if the first syllable rhymed with “Dutch”.
Oh, and as for Brett Favre, it’s not that everybody mispronounces his name. He just doesn’t know how to spell “Farv”.
I never could pronounce Prince’s symbol correctly.
It was pronounced TAFKAP.
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince
I don’t think I’d ever have figured out how to pronounce Antonin Dvorak’s name just by looking at the letters.
My favorite author, Chuck Palahniuk. No clue how it’s pronounced.
I know this one. It’s PALL-a-nick.
Any parent who gives their child a name that requires this much pronounciation explanation should be slapped with a wet trout.
Good to know. I’ve been saying ‘pal-a-NEE-uk.’
The actual pronunciation would be considered “furrin” by most Murkins. Since we’re a lazy lot, we say Farv instead of what was probably the original pronunciation of “Fahv”. Sort of like “Loover” instead of Louvre.
Presumably, being born Dutch, Dutch people would know how to pronounce it their way (yes, it’s a Latin or Greek name) without much explanation. His birthname was Jheronimus van Aken. Accurately describing most any foreign pronunciation to an English speaker is going to take a good bit of explaining if you want to be as accurate as possible.
At one time, I thought there ought to be some kind guide how to pronounce the names of perfumes. L’Aimant. L’Interdit. Sortilege. Having to buy a mother’s day present, for me, involved creeping up to the perfume counter and basically pointing - yeah, that one, please!
Now French perfumes are a thing of the past and everyone seems to be wearing Smelly Melon and Blackberry Cucumber, and Raspberry Fizz.
I’m surprised I’ve run across so many people who don’t know ‘Jesus’ among Latin Americans is pronounced ‘Hay-zoos’.
I’ve never had occasion to utter her name, but if the presenters at the Golden Globes got it right my pronunciation of Chloe Sevigny’s last name would’ve been wrong.
Beat this one:
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
For some reason, I’ve never had a problem with it - I first saw it (before Mr. Ali was famous, that is, saw the name in the Bible) hyphenated, so pronouncing Ma-her-sha-lal-hash-baz has always been easy.
Huh. Apparently she pronounces it “seven-knee,” according to Wikipedia. I’ve always pronounced it something like “sehy-veen-yee.” Now I know.