There must be some fans of the world’s greatest motor sport on the dope.
Is Hirvonen pronounced He ev on en, the way the old announcer said it to make it rhyme with dividends, or is it Her von en?
This season’s announcer isn’t as good as last season’s; he doesn’t have the salesman’s patter that the other guy did.
Being Finnish, I looked up the pronunciation guide to that language. It says that I is always pronounced as in FIT, and the R is even more pronounced than in American English. To say it English, then, I’d pronounce it HEAR-vah-nen.
Finnish is totally phonetic, and emphasis is always on the first syllable.
Say HEER-vo-nen