Thread: How do you pronounce the name "Kovalev"

How do you pronounce the name of hockey player Alex Kovalev?

Some hockey descriptors pronounce it "Kovalef", while some other pronounce it "Kovalyef"

Thank you

Ka-va-lyoff
or
Ka-va-loff

Stress on the last sylable.

Ковалёв

I presume these are American commentators, in which case they don't have a clue about pronouncing it. Although written as E in English the Russian letter is a Yo.

Ka-va-loff is wrong.

Someone just told me that a hockey commentator asked to Alex Kovalev, in october, if he should say "Kovalef" or "Kovalyef". He answered that "Kovalef" is ok.

Can you explain me what is the purpose of writting everywhere "Kovalev" instead of Ковалёв? "Kovalev" doesn't even indicate the right way to pronounce it. Since they don't write Ковалёв, I would rather write something like "Kavalyoff"...

Everybody pronounce it "Kovalef" and even some people are saying "Kovaleve"...

Originally Posted by net surfer

Ka-va-loff is wrong.

I presume you are talking about the absence of y. Well I find ly gives the wrong impression of a soft L. And English L is not a hard L in Russian. Just look at how English words with L are written in Russian. Often, maybe usually with a soft sign: Noble - Ноубль

English L is probably closer to a soft Russian L than a hard one.

If I just wrote lyoff, he would pronounce a Y after the L.

Originally Posted by snorkyller

Someone just told me that a hockey commentator asked to Alex Kovalev, in october, if he should say "Kovalef" or "Kovalyef". He answered that "Kovalef" is ok.

Can you explain me what is the purpose of writting everywhere "Kovalev" instead of Ковалёв? "Kovalev" doesn't even indicate the right way to pronounce it. Since they don't write Ковалёв, I would rather write something like "Kavalyoff"...

Everybody pronounce it "Kovalef" and even some people are saying "Kovaleve"...

They don;;t write Ковалёв because it's Russian.

Е - ye
Ё - yo

But Russians don't usually write the dots on the E. Anyway, generally, Ё is just transliterated as E in English.

Hence Горбачёв - Gorbachev
Хрущёв - Khrushchev

Both are pronounced with -yoff endings.

Originally Posted by TATY

But Russians don't usually write the dots on the E.

...to save an energy. It seldom causes any problems to native speakers. They use dots usually only in books for kids not to confuse little ones.

Originally Posted by TATY

Hence Горбачёв - Gorbachev
Хрущёв - Khrushchev

Both are pronounced with -yoff endings.

Yes, and everybody here are saying Gorbachef and Khrushchef.

My first language is french and everytime I hear a french name incorrectly pronounced, especially when I'm watching hockey games, my hears got hurted . Martin St-Lewis instead of "St-Louis". Patrick Woy instead of "Roy".

I think it's difficult to pronounce russian, french or spanish language when you speak english.

Originally Posted by snorkyller

Originally Posted by TATY

Hence Горбачёв - Gorbachev
Хрущёв - Khrushchev

Both are pronounced with -yoff endings.

Yes, and everybody here are saying Gorbachef and Khrushchef.

My first language is french and everytime I hear a french name incorrectly pronounced, especially when I'm watching hockey games, my hears got hurted . Martin St-Lewis instead of "St-Louis". Patrick Woy instead of "Roy".

I think it's difficult to pronounce russian, french or spanish language when you speak english.

Well in Russian the V at the end is pronounced F.

English names are often mispronounced and you you'll know so many variants of one and only name which the owner of tis name wouldn't hear in all his/her life.

Originally Posted by snorkyller

Someone just told me that a hockey commentator asked to Alex Kovalev, in october, if he should say "Kovalef" or "Kovalyef". He answered that "Kovalef" is ok.

It's entirely possible that :
a) he just didn't care to put any effort into explaining it to some reporter who also doesn't really care and who probably has all of two Russian words in his vocab (nyet and vodka)
or
b) he understands that it's his "professional" name, meaning people who aren't familiar with Russian have butchered it for so long, so what's the point?

Well, I think it's better, faster and easier to make a recording.

Originally Posted by net surfer

Well, I think it's better, faster and easier to make a recording.

Thank you for the sound file!!!

Well for "Kavaloff", to me, the first "a" doesn't sounds like the second "a". It seems to be something between an "o" and an "a".
In french, "K

[quote=snorkyller]

Originally Posted by net surfer

Well, I think it's better, faster and easier to make a recording.

Thank you for the sound file!!!

Well for "Kavaloff", to me, the first "a" doesn't sounds like the second "a". It seems to be something between an "o" and an "a".
In french, "K

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by net surfer

Ka-va-loff is wrong.

I presume you are talking about the absence of y. Well I find ly gives the wrong impression of a soft L. And English L is not a hard L in Russian. Just look at how English words with L are written in Russian. Often, maybe usually with a soft sign: Noble - Ноубль

English L is probably closer to a soft Russian L than a hard one.

If I just wrote lyoff, he would pronounce a Y after the L.

I agree with Taty here -- "loff" is likely to be pronounced closer to truth, by an average English speaker at least.

Thank's again for your interesting explanations!

I got a new question (yes, again )

Is the pronounciation of "ev" the same as for "ov"? It seems to me to be the same...
If so, does it means that "ev" and "ov" has both the same signification, the difference being the location from where the name come from?

They sound differently but overall the idea implied in them is the same.

Originally Posted by snorkyller

Thank's again for your interesting explanations!

I got a new question (yes, again )

Is the pronounciation of "ev" the same as for "ov"? It seems to me to be the same...
If so, does it means that "ev" and "ov" has both the same signification, the difference being the location from where the name come from?

It depends.
After a hard consonant you'll often have an "ov", but after a soft one (as in Коваль), you'll have "ёв" (->ev), since "ьо" is replaced with "ё", which is in its' turn usually written as "e" in Russian orthography. If he were a Ukrainian citizen, his name would have been written as Ковальов in Ukrainian (since we don't have the letter "ё") and transcribed as "Kovalyov".

Also there are of course proper "ev's", without a hidden ё, like in say Медведев (Medvedev), which is pronounced "medvEdeff", not "medvedYOff". This ending is typically unstressed, unlike "ов/ёв", which often is (always in the case of "yov", but not necessarily of "ov", e.g. Kurnikova is "kUrnikava", with the stress on the first syllable, bit Ivanov is "ivanOff"). exceptions, exceptions....

Смирнов - Smirnov
Попов - Popov
Медведев - Myedvyedyev
Ковалёв - Kovalyov

Ё - yo
Е - ye
О - o

Those three are PRONUNCIATIONS.

However in newspapers and on TV and stuff Russian E tends to be written as E,
Ё also as E
and O as O.

But Ё is often just written as E in English, infact it is a convention in academic usage.

Thank's a lot. I think that I now have a good comprehension.
We never stop to learn...!