Thread

How does "Krzyzewski" sound like "Shashefski"

· Troubleshooting · 38 posts · Jul 3, 2004 — Jul 5, 2004 View original thread ↗

#31 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 19:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
No I don't think it's arrogant to state a well-known fact. In The US your name stands a 99.995% chance of being pronounced the way it's spelled - in English. There are simply too many nationalities and dialects represented in the US to expect folks to somehow *know* by looking at a piece of paper exactly where the hell a particular name originated.

Common (obvious) "foreign" names are typically pronounced somewhat correctly.

And while my name is very simple to pronounce, it's forever being swapped around. Seems it sounds better when my last name is first.

Actually, I use my middle name as my first name. Confused yet?

I agree with you mostly, in that it's probably too much to expect people in *any* country to know how to pronounce words or names that they're not used to, and even I use the German version of my name, here in Europe, since most Germans can't pronounce the "th" sound.

But if I ever see you in Italy, I'm gonna call you Alonzo.

#32 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 19:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Ois�n:
[B]Actually, I'd say Shashefski is closer than Kre-zy-zowski. Allow me to elaborate (I don't speak Polish, but I know the pronunciation fairly well):

Rz is a diphthong in Polish, pronounced like zh (ie. as the s in "vision" or "measure"; a voiced variant of sh).

Y is usually a kind of schwa sound in Polish, a short "uh" sound.

I'm guessing the second z in Krzyzewski is probably not a z in Polish, but a ż, which is pronounced sort of like rz, but more palatalised (the sound doesn't exist in English, so I can't really explain it properly).

Polish has two zs: hard zs and soft zs. When writing these zs, many find it difficult to remember how to write down the z correctly with ' or �.

#33 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 19:25

Quote:

Originally posted by theolein:
Actually, the Italian version of your name would probably be Vincenzo or Vincetti.

But don't you think it's arrogant to tell people how to pronounce or spell their names? English is notorious for having no real rules of pronunciation, and the fact that your first name could be mistaken for A-Local-Area-Network is indicative of that, isn't it?

But whatever, Polish names are notoriously difficult to pronounce for all the world's people who don't know the pronunciation rules, but just about everyone is every nation does this with some foreign names. After having worked in Turkey and bothered to learn a bit of the language, I cringe every time I hear a German newsreader totally mispronounce Turkish sirnames, but it's actually quite understandable, since German doesn't have the same pronunciation rules as Turkish does.

Polish names are logical to me (I never even have had a lesson in Polish).

#34 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 20:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Hide my feelings?

heh. This is Spliffdaddy you're talking to.

You must be foreign or something.

So you're admitting your a bigot and a racist? I'm not calling you such but you seem to be implying it.

#35 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 20:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Atomic Rooster:
So your admitting your a bigot and a racist? I'm not calling you such but you seem to be implying it.

YOU'RE !
It's YOU'RE !

Besides that: I'm not getting it.

You must be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

-t

#36 Sun, 4 Jul 2004 - 22:22

Quote:

Originally posted by turtle777:
YOU'RE !
It's YOU'RE !

Besides that: I'm not getting it.

Fixed. I spelled it the way it sounded.

As far as not getting it...I don't get it either.

#37 Mon, 5 Jul 2004 - 01:27

Quote:

Originally posted by undotwa:
Polish has two zs: hard zs and soft zs. When writing these zs, many find it difficult to remember how to write down the z correctly with ' or �.

Yeah, me included - my only crutch is that I can remember that both ć, ń and ś become ci, ni and si respectively before a vowel, so ź has to be the same, and since his name isn't Krzyziewski, I figured it had to be the other one (ż, that is)...

But why they need all these Z's anyway is beyond me...

#38 Mon, 5 Jul 2004 - 01:45

Quote:

Originally posted by macroy:
Remember that beer commercial (bud light?) where the limo driver had a sign that said "M. Krzyzewski" and the pitch man was like "yes, I'm Mr. ker-zi-ze-wuski"...

You mean this commercial?
bud lite.mp3

"Driver, do you have any bud lite in your vehicle?"
"Yes"
"Then I am Mr. Galewekitch"
"You mean, Dr. Galakowitz?"
"Yes I am"