Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Talking Smart: Foreign Names

Sami Hyypiä (Fin.)
In this tricky Finnish name the doubled "yy" is pronounced as single French "u": [hiu-pee-a], "iu" should be one syllable.

Sedgwick (Eng.)
Although the root "e" is omitted here, the "g" anyway should be read as in "gesture", not as a [g]: [sedzhwik].

Shunzuke Nakamura (Jap.)
First, the "Sh" is pronounced here as [sh], because it is followed by "u", not by "е" nor "i", and second, the Japanese swallow the second "u" in this name: [shunske].

Stephen Hunt (Eng.)
That's how the name [stiven] is written in English. Don't look for "Steven". Update: ok, look for Steven, there tons of them. Although, the correct way to spell this name is still "Stephen".

Stephen Wishart (Eng.)
Here the "s" and the "h" belong to various roots, hence don't form a [sh] sound: [wis-hart].

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