How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

[perkizitore]

I have to confess that I've never and ever knew how to pronounce Borzage and Dieterle, and, well, she's an actress, but Deborah Kerr, when I try to say it in the propper way, I can not.
Deborah Kerr is just the perfect example of all the difficulties - impossibilities for a Spanish speaker when he (me) tries not to sound Spaniard.

Deborah is pronounced Kaa...r i think.

[zedz]

Post-vocalic 'r' is a quaint Americanism, I'm afraid, so no r at the end.

[perkizitore]

I know, but it's more fun this way

[HarryLong]

It would be even more fun witha trilled Spanish Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

[zedz]

"Kerr" - as in "ay caramba!"

[CSM126]

I've always assumed that 'Dieterle" was pronounced 'Dee-ter-lee'.

[domino harvey]

"Kerr" - as in "ay caramba!"

"There's a new star in Deborah Kerr," or something like that

[rohmerin]

Gracias, but another problem of mine is when I say "Deborah" it doesn't sound UK English, I sound Spanglish ](*,) that I don't know if it's fun, well, for me it¡s not. I feel very shamed with my RRRRs and specially our SSSSSSs like snakes.

What about Borzage? I say his name always in a French way.

[zedz]

In his American Cinema documentary, Scorsese pronounced Borzage as Bor-ZAY-gee (with a hard 'g' in the last syllable), which I found so surprising I assumed it was authentic. I don't remember how they pronounced it in the box set documentary, but I don't remember it being different. If I ever had occasion to say the name out loud I'd follow like a sheep.

[Tom Amolad]

How many syllables in Vincente Minnelli's first name? I've heard knowledgeable people take the two- and the three-syllable approach. Is it something he was flexible about?

[rohmerin]

Vin-cen-te has got 3 syllables in Italian, but 2 in English.
My English is not perfect, but trust me, my Italian is. My accent seems from Torino (99% of Italians said to me that).

Borzage sounds better in a French way (bor-sashhhhh ) than in the Sorsese's. Sorry, I'm a snobbish sheep

[Matt]

But Scorsese is right.

[Jeff]

Another good pronunciation resource

[Murdoch]

Evgenii Bauer? And is it Evgenii or Yevgeni?

[zedz]

YevGEHnee, with a hard 'g', as in 'get'.

[Murdoch]

Thanks!

[swo17]

zedz is right on the pronunciation. There isn't necessarily one correct way to spell his name in our alphabet. His first name in Cyrillic is Евгений.

[DanV]

Evgenii Bauer? And is it Evgenii or Yevgeni?

The English transliteration is "Yevgeni" and is obviously "wrong". The correct spelling is "Evgenij", which is pronounced as zedz said.

PS: and yes, Borzage is probably the strangest surname ever.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

"Yevgeni" is actually only one letter off from the British Standard and Russian passport romanizations (Yevgeniy). There's about half a dozen romanizations in semi-common use, it's kind of a mess.

[domino harvey]

Yevgeny Kafelnikov tripped up at least one sports anchor...

[swo17]

No one asked, but I have it on good authority that Pál Fejös is pronounced Pal Feh-yoosh.

[movielocke]

I still look at the name Naruse and pronounce it mentally Nah-roos. And I just realized it yesterday when I thought, "wait, that pronunciation doesn't make any sense... Damn phonics." Is Na-ru-say the correct way to pronounce his name?

[Landjorden]

I have no idea about the real pronunciation but I think it is as it is spelled Na-ru-se. At least that sound most right to me so thats what I use

[swo17]

I believe the actual correct pronunciation is NAH-roo-say (I think you're generally supposed to emphasize the third from last syllable) but the Americanized version would be nah-ROO-say (second from last syllable, consistent with how most Americans pronounce Kurosawa).

[Zinoviev]

(I think you're generally supposed to emphasize the third from last syllable)

Ku-RO-sa-wa?