# All Slavic languages: Correct pronunciation of famous names



## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Due to the remarkable number of good tennis players from slavphones countries, I would like to know how to pronnounce some names properly.

_Serbia_ has the two good females Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic and the new threat for Nadal and Federer in male - Novak Djokovic. 

The -vic should be pronoucne as English -vits ? or vich? 
How about the Novak, is it NO-vak, or no-VAK? (is there anything about long or short vowels)?

_Russians_ - Maria Sharapova, Kunetsova, Nikolai Davydenko 

_Slovak_: I think that I have heard Brazilian comentators pronnunciate Hantuchová as 'Hantučova'. 

Something similiar occur to the_ Czech_ goalkeeper Petr Čech, for whom I usually hear the 'Petr' as English 'Peter' and the Čech as /Ček/. 
And about Nicole Vaidišová - it should be /Nitsole/ or /Nikole/ ? And the 'Vai*di*..." may be pronnounce as Vai*d'*?Well, I hope I haven´t forgotten any important player´s name. 

And if you want to represent some sounds in cyrilic alphabet (perhaps it better), I don´t mind. 

Děkuji!

Na shledanou.:


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## Ptak

Tagarela said:


> _Russians_ - Maria Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Nikolai Davydenko


Мар*и*я Шар*а*пова
Светл*а*на Кузнец*о*ва
Никол*а*й Давид*е*нко


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## Athaulf

Tagarela said:


> Due to the remarkable number of good tennis players from slavphones countries, I would like to know how to pronnounce some names properly.
> 
> _Serbia_ has the two good females Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic and the new threat for Nadal and Federer in male - Novak Djokovic.
> 
> The -vic should be pronoucne as English -vits ? or vich?
> 
> How about the Novak, is it NO-vak, or no-VAK? (is there anything about long or short vowels)?



In the overwhelming majority of cases, including these ones, family names from ex-Yugoslavia ending in _-ic_ are in fact supposed to end in *-ić*. The last character is pronounced more or less like Spanish _ch_, only a bit softer. 

To pronounce the above names, you can read them as if they were Spanish, except  that *j* is pronounced like *y*, *dj* like *j* in English _jeans_ (only a bit softer), and the final *c* (i.e. *ć*) as explained above. 

As for the stress and vowel length, pronunciation can be extremely complicated, including not only vowel length, but also pitch. Accents can also vary considerably between regions and even between individuals. The only general rule is that the accent is never on the last syllable. The accented syllables in these names are:  *A*na Iv*a*nović, J*e*lena J*a*nković, and N*o*vak Dj*o*ković. Try pronouncing the accented vowels longer in Iv*a*nović, J*a*nković, and Dj*o*ković. However, you'll sound reasonably good even if you use all short vowels like in Spanish.


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## Jana337

Tagarela said:


> _Slovak_: I think that I have heard Brazilian comentators pronnunciate Hantuchová as 'Hantučova'.


No, that's wrong. "Ch" is the sound of Bach (German) or loch (Scottish).



> Something similiar occur to the_ Czech_ goalkeeper Petr Čech, for whom I usually hear the 'Petr' as English 'Peter' and the Čech as /Ček/.


Ch - the same story.
Petr - pretty straightforward. I am sure you already know that Czech letters mostly have constant pronunciation. If you put together the sounds for those four letters, you will get the correct pronunciation.



> And about Nicole Vaidišová - it should be /Nitsole/ or /Nikole/ ? And the 'Vai*di*..." may be pronnounce as Vai*d'*?Well, I hope I haven´t forgotten any important player´s name.


/Nikole/ 
The "d" in "-di-" is soft in native Czech words but not in loanwords (like idiot). "Vaidišová" doesn't sound like a typical Czech word so I'd tend to the latter pronunciation. I believe the media agree with me.


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Thank you for all

Ptak, the underlined letters are the strong ones, right? So, can I say 'Sharap_a_va' and 'Nik_a_lai Davidenk_a_'?

Athaulf, mm, the long vowel is the same of the strong vowel?

Jana, I was wondering if they were exception, but according to you answer the problem lies on the comentator pronnunciation. 
But why 'Ni*C*ole' is an exception? I read that she was born in Germany, perhaps one of her parents is German and it may explain...but, /Ni_ts_ole/ would sound a little strange indeed. 
As for Petr, I think I know how to say it, I´ve listened about others Petr´s in my textbook´s audio and in Radio Praha. 



Na shledanou.:


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## Ptak

Tagarela said:


> Ptak, the underlined letters are the strong ones, right? So, can I say 'Sharap_a_va' and 'Nik_a_lai Davidenk_a_'?


Yes, the pronunciation is ~[Shah-r*a*h-pah-vah] and ~[Dah-veeh-d*e*n-kah]


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## Metju

Tagarela said:


> _Slovak_: I think that I have heard Brazilian comentators pronnunciate Hantuchová as 'Hantučova'.
> 
> Something similiar occur to the_ Czech_ goalkeeper Petr Čech, for whom I usually hear the 'Petr' as English 'Peter' and the Čech as /Ček/.
> And about Nicole Vaidišová - it should be /Nitsole/ or /Nikole/ ? And the 'Vai*di*..." may be pronnounce as Vai*d'*?Well, I hope I haven´t forgotten any important player´s name.



Hi, Tagarela.

My suggestion :
Daniela Hantuchová = danɪjɛla ɦantuxɔva, dah.nihyeh.lah hahn.tu.kho.vah
Petr Čech = pɛtr ʧɛx, pehtr tshehkh
Nicole Vaidišová = nih.kol vy.dih.sho.vah

I used pronunciation according to IPA and World Book Online Dictionary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_respelling_for_English


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Děkuji Metju, a vítam vás v forum - and, I can´t help to do it: Nice to Metju! 

Petr Čech also has somethign "against" him, he plays in Chelsea, in England, because that I guess that narrotors are more inclined to use English pronunciation, strangely, they say the 'Č' correct, althought usually it has no háček. 

Dovidenia.:


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## vox05

Tagarela said:


> Ahoj,
> _Russians_ - Maria Sharapova, Kunetsova, Nikolai Davydenko


mɐ'rʲiə ʂɐ'rapəvə
kuznʲɪ't͡sovə
nʲɪkɐ'laɪ   dəvɨ'dʲɛnkə


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## Anatoli

*Mikhail Youzhny* (or Mikhail Yuzhny) - (_Russian_: Михаил Южный) - another Russian tennis player (male) whose name is often mispronounced, it is ['juʒnɨj], "zh" stands for "ʒ" as "s" in "vision", not "z" as in "zebra".


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

It's me again with sports name:

First, on last wednesday we had the final match of UEFA Champions Leage, it was in Moscow, in the stadium *Лужники (Luzhniki)*. Does the _ж/zh_ is pronounced as it is written or like _ш/sh_. Lužniki -> Lušniki ?

Another doubt: the name of the Polish tennis player - *Agnieszka Radwanska* would sound like (if written in Czech) _Agněška Radvanska_?

Děkuji vám 

Na shledanou.:
*
*


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## Thomas1

Well, I'm sure the Czech pronunciation of Polish words can bring not one smile to Polish faces. 

But if you alter it a bit it may sound close to the original (note that it's Agnieszka Radwańska):
_Agniěška Radva__ň__ska
_I don't remember how to pronounce _ě_ so here's how I would put it down phonetically using English script.
agnyeahshkah radvaňskah (the _ň _taken form Czech)

Tom


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## Maroseika

Tagarela said:


> First, on last wednesday we had the final match of UEFA Champions Leage, it was in Moscow, in the stadium *Лужники (Luzhniki)*. Does the _ж/zh_ is pronounced as it is written or like _ш/sh_. Lužniki -> Lušniki ?


ж/zh


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## Saluton

It's Николай Дав*ы*денко, not Давиденко. His name is sometimes misread even in Russian.


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## palomnik

I appreciate your consternation.  Even after years of studying Russian, more often than not I get the stress wrong on proper names, if it's a name I haven't heard before...

I honestly think Russian is as bad as English in this regard.


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