Friday, September 28, 2007

Talking Smart: Foreign Names

Steven Pienaar (Dut.)
In Dutch language the "ie" stands for a long [i], while doubled "аа" is pronounced as a single [a]: [pinar].

Szombathely (Hun.)
In this Hungarian surname you should remember two things: first, the "sz" stands for [s], and second, the "ly" is [y], as in "boy": [som-ba-tey].

Thomas Myhre (Dan.)
The "y" letter in Scandinavian languages stands for French [u] sound, if not at the beginning of a word. While the "h" is mute in this case: [miu-re] (with [iu] being one syllable).

Tim Cahill (Eng.)
Despite that the "h" is in intervocal position (between two vowels) here, in which it's often mute, in this case it's clearly pronounced: [ka-hill].

Tomasz Cywka (Pol.)
Unlike in Hungarian, in Polish the "sz" is [sh], while "с", as we told many times, is [ts] in Polish language. The "y" is different to "i", but the non-Polish are not likely to understand the difference. So, it's [tomash tsivka].

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