Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Talking Smart: Foreign Names

Al Sadd (Arab.)
Quite often for some reason the name of the richest Quatar club is misspelled - "Al Saad". While there are two "d" in this name, not two "a".

Bartez (Fr.)
Contrary to the rules of French language, the final "z" is pronounced by the French in the name of the keeper. It sounds like [s] - [bartes].

Ajaccio (Fr.)
The name of this Corsican club and city is pronounced in France in French way: [a-zhaks-yo].

Grafite (Br.)
The final "e" in Portuguese language, unless stressed, is pronounced as [i]: Grafite - [grafiti], Jorge - [zhorzhi], Enrique - [enriki], Juventude - [zhuventudi], Guilherme - [guilyermi].

Hidetoshi (Jap.)
Japanese "sh" sounds as such only if not followed by "e" or "i". In these two cases it sounds like [s]: [hidetosi]

Johansson, Jonsson (Swed.)
"Jo" at the beginnning of a word in Swedish language is pronounced as [yu]: [yuhanson], [yunsson].

Mateuţ, Raţ (Rom.)
In Romanian language a [ts] sound is rendered with the help of a special letter, which by many is misinterpreted as "t". The guys should be called [mateuts] and [rats].

Almería (Span.)
The stress in Spanish club's name falls onto "i".

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