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
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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"...
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 - НоубльQuote:
Originally Posted by net surfer
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.
They don;;t write Ковалёв because it's Russian.Quote:
Originally Posted by snorkyller
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.
...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.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
Yes, and everybody here are saying Gorbachef and Khrushchef. :? :?Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by snorkyller
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. :(
It's entirely possible that :Quote:
Originally Posted by snorkyller
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.
Thank you for the sound file!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by net surfer
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]Thank you for the sound file!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by net surfer
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
I agree with Taty here -- "loff" is likely to be pronounced closer to truth, by an average English speaker at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
Thank's again for your interesting explanations!
I got a new question (yes, again :wink: )
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.
It depends.Quote:
Originally Posted by snorkyller
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...! ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by net surfer
Since everyone is already talking about names, I'm not gonna open a new topic to ask this.
What's the stress syllabe on the name Воронин?
Воронин
I DO HATE Popov!!! (Its my former teacher and he's a sod)
You mean it?
Maybe you want to say "sob"? Sod is a way different.
Sod is right, if you mean that he was an asshole (technically he is a sodomite)Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuvak
That's a very interesting point. As a matter of fact, Brits seem to palatalize "L" more than Americans. I have noticed that on more than one occasion. I am talking averages here, of course, there may be (and probably are) a lot of exceptions to this rule.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
Кароче, он был (и по видимому остался) настоящим пид*расом в прямом смысле этого слова!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtyom
My (Ukrainian) Russian-teachers are always saying "no, a hard 'l'" when I say 'l's.
I personally find Russian hard L closer to English W, the tongue position feels almost identical and quite different from Russian soft L or English L.
The tongue position of Hard L and English W are completely different. The tongue isn't really used in W, it lies flat at the bottom of the mouth. With Hard L the tip of the tongue is up behind the top teeth.Quote:
Originally Posted by laxxy
Remember, Soft L is just Hard L but palatised.
In my case at least, the hard and soft L, unlike the other Russian consonants, are definitely NOT a palatized and non-palatized version of each other, not even close -- in particular, the tip of my tongue is down, and is in fact located pretty much in the same place as when pronouncing W.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
Well you are probably saying one of them wrong :PQuote:
Originally Posted by laxxy
could be of course -- I could never pronounce the Russian R, but so far I have never heard much complaints about my L, and I'm quite sure my W is correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
Well then maybe your interpretation of where your tongue is is wrong.
'Is is' - rarely do I see this one being repeated!Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
It would be better to say:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtyom
maybe your interpretation of your tongue's position is wrong, to avoid "is is".
I have just conducted an experiment -- I've put a thin strip of paper between my teeth, and when I am saying a word with a soft L lika "lyazhka" I feel the tip of my tongue touching it (since it moves up); on the other hand, when I am saying a word with a hard L like "lozhka" it is not touching the strip since it stays down.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY
When you say a hard L the tip of the tongue is definately UP. In Phonetics an L is described as dental or alveolar approximate. Dental means touching the teeth. Alveolar means the ridge behind the top teeth. In Russian it is Alveolar.Quote:
Originally Posted by laxxy
There is no way you can produce a hard L with your tongue "staying down".
well maybe once I get to a microphone I can record a sample.Quote:
Originally Posted by TATY