What’d They Say? The World Cup Of Names.

June 4th, 2010 | by: chris |

forvo Botching names is as much World Cup tradition as the ball, the trophy or FIFA coming under fire for whatever has gone wrong this time. A couple nights back SportsCenter got the ball rolling by pronouncing the ‘Alves’ in Dani Alves like ‘elves’. One can only imagine what they would’ve done with Fabio Quagliarella. (Kept him on the bench unlike Lippi, for firsts.)

And then watching the Azzurri game on Telemundo yesterday (Spanish-speaking channel in the US) I was impressed with how smoothly the Italian names rolled off the Mexican commentator’s tongue, for obvious linguistic similarities, and while he was busy saying Iaquinta just to say Iaquinta – who wouldn’t? – I thought perhaps it’s a tradition best broken. And thus there was Forvo.

Some of the best – mostly the best, since Forvo is rather thin at the moment for footballers – and more difficult to say with pronunciation:

– ‘Iaquinta’ is a linguist’s – and Marcello Lippi’s – wet dream.
– It’s really not that difficult, and yet…it gets butchered like a Whitechapel hooker time and time again.
– (Stefan Kießling) This one might fool those who don’t know how to pronounce the bent paperclip.
– Quintessentially French.
– (Zdravko Kuzmanovic) It, like Toulalan, rolls off the native tongue with perfection.
– The name itself isn’t anything special, but the delay is a wonderful touch.
– Let’s not pretend that we’re more mature than the enjoyment of saying YAYA.
– The n before the d has felled me once or twice.
– He may not get close enough to the field to make it an issue, but still – it never hurts.
– Some people crucify this thing until it becomes K-a-k-á. No clue how that happens.
– Get the keys, not the mozzarella.
– Not to be confused with T-o-y-o-t-a. (In fact a number of the Japanese players are present.)

Names which haven’t yet made it to Forvo that must soon (with pronunciation via Wikipedia):

Siphiwe Tshabalala* (South Africa) – (C-PEE-WAY SHAH-BAH-LAH-LAH)
Lounes Gaouaoui (Algeria)
Aldo Bobadilla (Paraguay)
Guy N’dy Assembé (Cameroon)
Jean II Makoun (Cameroon) – That’s a Roman numeral thrown in there, he’s not sick.

* – I dare say Tshabalala will be the single most popular man at this World Cup. He’s already my hero, and he didn’t even name himself. (Though it’d make him more awesome if he did.)

Since this could shave days from my life – all 736 names, before we even enter the managerial frame – I’ll open the floor up to you. Who else is deserving?

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1_Luka

You need to include Santi Cazorla. The main commentator at the Confederations Cup kept calling him “CaRzola.” It drove me absolutely crazy.
http://twitter.com/locoluis Luis González M.

A lot of those are african names with french spellings. Craziness.
sairax

I'm so in love with this post
sandra350

I'd love to know why I have to log-in to disqus every SINGLE TIME I want to post on this site.

Currently my biggest complaint re pronunciation of football players names (and teams) comes from the women Fox Soccer Channel mystifyingly chose to hire: Laura Baldesara. Omigod. Yeah, she's pretty, I guess that's the only reason they hired her.

She mangles so many names of players, managers and football clubs every night she's on. The worst is when she tries pronouncing Brazilian club teams — Cruzeiro is the one she perpetually screws up. Some of my Brazilian friends and I have sometimes screamed at the TV and shouted “It's CRUZAYRO, YOU IDIOT WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The guys at Telemundo generally get it correct – I admire how they manage the German names pretty well. I love how they really get a kick out of “Schweinsteiger.”
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

“I'd love to know why I have to log-in to disqus every SINGLE TIME I want to post on this site.”

Hope this helps: http://help.disqus.com/entries/99015-login-prob...
LaurieInSeattle

I believe “Lounes Gaouaoui” has the highest vowel-to-consonant ration in history. Maybe he could do some swaps with Poland.
Hana

The Univision/Telemundo guys are wonderful with names. My favorite part is when they embellish their pronunciations for one reason or another. I remember everytime Portugal played during the 06 WC, they kept pronouncing “Simao Sabrosa” with this hysterical Dr. Love radio voice, since his last name means “tasty” in Spanish. The guy was positively obsessed, and I couldn't stop laughing during Portugal v Netherlands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP3gztyhZwQ
Marcamps

the Telemundo commentators are not Mexican; the play-by-play announcer is Argentinean, while the color commentator is Peruvian.

Univision, though, has Mexican commentators, and they – along with sister channels Telefutura and Galavision – will broadcast the World Cup in Spanish here in the States.
Hana

Do you know what the name of the main guy on Univision is? The one in the Simao video, and who does most of the WC matches? The guy is a legend. Almost like the Ray Hudson of spanish commentating.
Marcamps

Pablo Ramirez. he, along with Jesus Bracamontes, make up the Univision commentating duo. thankfully, these two will be calling the World Cup instead of those annoying dudes from Telemundo.
http://www.mcalcio.com Marco P.

The FSC report newscaster should REALLY try Forvo. They continuously mis-pronounce “Iaquinta” as “I-na-kinta” and “Gilardino” as “Gilardinho”.