How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
Further to Michael’s post. The same applies to feminised surnames in Russian, like Kira Muratova. Her first husband’s name was MuRATov, so hers is MuRATova.
In general, with multiply syllabled Russian names, you’re generally correct if you put the emphasis on the penultimate syllable. (Doesn’t apply to all Russian names, like TolSTOY or ZVYAgintsev, unfortunately, or Russians with non-Russian names, like Eisenstein!). E.g PuDOVkin, KalaTOZov, ParaDZHANov. And it’s VlaDIMir NaBOKov, not whatever you heard from Sting or Nick Cave.
In general, with multiply syllabled Russian names, you’re generally correct if you put the emphasis on the penultimate syllable. (Doesn’t apply to all Russian names, like TolSTOY or ZVYAgintsev, unfortunately, or Russians with non-Russian names, like Eisenstein!). E.g PuDOVkin, KalaTOZov, ParaDZHANov. And it’s VlaDIMir NaBOKov, not whatever you heard from Sting or Nick Cave.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
And of course Battleship PotYOMkin.
- Shrew
- The Untamed One
- Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
Chinese is hard to pronounce because it's a tone language and has some sounds you don't see in the West (the sh, zh, ch, r group), but its grammar is pretty flexible and usually straight s-v-o with no tenses or conjugation. Japanese is far easier to pronounce but its grammar is s-o-v and you have various conjugations, some of them involving social register. Plus the kanji can have multiple pronunciations depending on the context. I found Chinese much easier.
I hadn't heard the theory about Finnish/Hungarian being related to Japanese/Korean, but there is a theory that the latter two are related to Turkish because of the grammar.
- Mr Sausage
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
- Location: Canada
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
Speaking of Russian names, I was surprised to learn that a name like Boris is pronounced more like bah - REESS.zedz wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 4:52 pmFurther to Michael’s post. The same applies to feminised surnames in Russian, like Kira Muratova. Her first husband’s name was MuRATov, so hers is MuRATova.
In general, with multiply syllabled Russian names, you’re generally correct if you put the emphasis on the penultimate syllable. (Doesn’t apply to all Russian names, like TolSTOY or ZVYAgintsev, unfortunately, or Russians with non-Russian names, like Eisenstein!). E.g PuDOVkin, KalaTOZov, ParaDZHANov. And it’s VlaDIMir NaBOKov, not whatever you heard from Sting or Nick Cave.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
Though it underwent a few hundred years ago a drastic francophoniation as a way, or so says my Romanian aunt, to distant itself from the Russians and look more civilized to the west. This is immediate obvious with the written language which used to be in Cyrillic. My aunt's father only speaks Romanian which has given me many occasions to see this in action. With my poor spanish I'm able to actually hold something like a conversation with him so long as remember the differences (e.g. 'hai' instead of 'vai' for you go).MichaelB wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 pmRomanian is apparently closer to Latin than any other living language. And yes, it's surprisingly easy to make out the gist of written Romanian if you already know at least one of the Romance languages, especially if you swot up on a few local grammatical quirks (such as the definite article being expressed by the suffix "-ul", which is sometimes then followed by another suffix - for instance in the original title of The Child's Pose, which is Poziția copilului).Florinaldo wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:05 pmGroupings of languages can sometimes be surprising. I remember when the now defunct international organisation called the Latin Union was still around some people were surprised to see Romania as a member, but it turns out that Romanian is indeed part of the family of Latin languages, now more commonly called Romance languages. When you listen to it being spoken, you can hear similiarities with Italian, French and others. Also, nearly all the Romanians I have know displayed a fiery character true to their sang latin (or latin blood).
-
- Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2011 4:01 am
Re: How to pronounce your favorite director's name
Is it the same with Christian Braad Thomsen? He goes under b?
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions
I have now, and that's precisely what I did. I'd be amazed if I got through my commentary for Kino Lorber's The Round-Up without making any mistakes over and above one that I already know about (I messed up the name "Béla Varju" by being so fixated on getting the surname right - "Voryoo" that for some reason I rendered "Bela" as "Byela"), but hopefully it'll be clear that I'm making some effort! It's when people don't have the first clue how to pronounce words in a certain language but try it anyway that it becomes painful.MichaelB wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:10 amBut while I'm just as familiar with Hungarian cinema as I am with the Polish and Czech equivalent, I don't know the language at all - and just to be even more confusing, their pronunciation rules are occasionally the exact opposite of those for, say, Polish. For instance "s" is "s" in Polish but "sh" in Hungarian, while "sz" is the other way around - meaning, amongst other things, that the correct pronunciation of István Szabó is closer to "Ishtvaan Saboo" than what I suspect most people would instinctively assume. I haven't recorded a Hungarian-film commentary yet, but if I ever do (and the possibility is far from remote), I might have to do things like writing names out phonetically and having them in front of me, as I can easily see myself mispronouncing them if I just left them in their common spelling.
One happy by-product is that I can now pronounce and indeed write the formerly daunting Szegénylegények without having to look it up - it's surprisingly straightforward if you think about it as a compound word with three discrete elements: "szegény", which means "destitute" or "wretched", "legény", which means "young man" and the suffix "-ek", which makes it plural, and the five Es are spaced out so that the first, third and fifth are short and the second and fourth are long (hence the accent). The English title was originally the closer-to-the-original The Hopeless Ones until someone came up with the inspired The Round-Up, which suited it brilliantly.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
I'm half Hungarian by blood and my mom is trying to learn the language which has led her to this Hungarian Wordle site. It will surprise no one to learn that I've set up a spreadsheet to help her with it, and learned a little about the language myself in the process. For instance, did you know that both 'sz' and 'ny' in that title are considered a single letter? Even 'dzs' is a single, separate letter. And whenever the first letter in a "double letter" like that immediately precedes that letter (e.g. ssz, nny, ccs, ggy) that's actually a double double letter (so ssz = sz sz)
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
English has that as well (e.g. ph, th, sh). They’re called digraphs. Many languages represent such phonemes through acrylics such as č in Czech for ch in English. They’re usually there to represent connected mouth formations for separate phonemes. (i.e. sh is formed in a similar was as the soft s phoneme).
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Yes, the common roots of Polish and Czech would be much more obvious if they hadn’t evolved their own spelling systems. For instance, had the Czech one dominated, we’d be talking about Andřej Vajda and Křistof Kiešlovski, whereas if Polish had won out we’d be discussing Jerzy Menzel, Milosz Forman and Frantiszek Wlaczil.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Nowhere near an expert, but I don't know that that's exactly the same thing. For instance, 'sz', as previously noted, is the equivalent of just an 's' in English. And each of these two-character combinations is recognized as a separate letter, making their alphabet 44 letters in total!knives wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 3:06 pmEnglish has that as well (e.g. ph, th, sh). They’re called digraphs. Many languages represent such phonemes through acrylics such as č in Czech for ch in English. They’re usually there to represent connected mouth formations for separate phonemes. (i.e. sh is formed in a similar was as the soft s phoneme).
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
“Sh” in English is “š” in Czech and Slovak, “sz” in Polish and “s” in Hungarian.
Conversely, “s” in English is also “s” in Czech, Slovak and Polish, but “sz” in Hungarian.
It can be quite a challenge to read out Polish and Hungarian names in the same list!
Conversely, “s” in English is also “s” in Czech, Slovak and Polish, but “sz” in Hungarian.
It can be quite a challenge to read out Polish and Hungarian names in the same list!
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
It’s pretty weird that English doesn’t count it’s digraphs as separate letters colloquially, in linguistics that can be different, whereas the norm is a bit more in line with Hungarian. In Hebrew for example a דּ and a ד are separate letters with technically different pronunciations with ד being the digraph equivalent.swo17 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 4:52 pmNowhere near an expert, but I don't know that that's exactly the same thing. For instance, 'sz', as previously noted, is the equivalent of just an 's' in English. And each of these two-character combinations is recognized as a separate letter, making their alphabet 44 letters in total!
Heck, in English there’s debate on the apostrophe being a letter.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Bob Fosse?
I've always said FAW-see in my head, but I think Anna Karina just says FOSS in Une femme est une femme
I've always said FAW-see in my head, but I think Anna Karina just says FOSS in Une femme est une femme
- DeprongMori
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
- Location: San Francisco
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
She’s pronouncing it like it’s a French name. But as we all remember from the trailer to the Birdcage, it’s “Fawsee, Fawsee, Fawsee”
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Makes sense, thanks, I just couldn't believe that Karina would ever make a mistake
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
It’s France making the mistake.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Watching Summer School and a character pronounces Tobe Hooper's first name like "toe-BAY." I've always pronounced it so it rhymes with G.O.B. Do I need to go back to summer school?
- Never Cursed
- Such is life on board the Redoutable
- Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
I always thought it was pronounced as "Toe-bee," but I'm notoriously bad with this type of thing
- Mr Sausage
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
- Location: Canada
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
I’ve always heard people in interviews call him TOH - bee.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
- ianthemovie
- Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:51 am
- Location: Boston, MA
- Contact:
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
Not about a director's name, but maybe this fits here.
I noticed in the latest Criterion Closet video with Minnie Driver that she pronounces Bette Davis' name "Bet" rather than the more common pronunciation "Betty." By sheer coincidence I recently rewatched The Aviator and was reminded that Cate Blanchett (as Katharine Hepburn) also says "Bet Davis." I thought maybe it could be a regional thing (do Americans say Betty and Brits and Australians say Bet?). Even if so that still doesn't explain why Hepburn would say "Bet," unless there's documented footage somewhere of her doing so. Surely Scorsese would have known, and if it was a gaffe I can't imagine how he and Thelma Schoonmaker wouldn't have caught it in the editing room.
I noticed in the latest Criterion Closet video with Minnie Driver that she pronounces Bette Davis' name "Bet" rather than the more common pronunciation "Betty." By sheer coincidence I recently rewatched The Aviator and was reminded that Cate Blanchett (as Katharine Hepburn) also says "Bet Davis." I thought maybe it could be a regional thing (do Americans say Betty and Brits and Australians say Bet?). Even if so that still doesn't explain why Hepburn would say "Bet," unless there's documented footage somewhere of her doing so. Surely Scorsese would have known, and if it was a gaffe I can't imagine how he and Thelma Schoonmaker wouldn't have caught it in the editing room.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
It’s “Betty”. Cousin Bette is pronounced “bet,” but Ms Davis isn’t
- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Re: How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name
It’s not uncommon to hear Bette Davis’ name pronounced as “bet.” I’ve heard it quite regularly in older British shows and in interviews with her contemporaries.