How to Pronounce Your Favorite Director's Name

[Mr.Jagil]

Well, i didn't care to read through the whole thread, just noticed someone asking about Dreyer, so, as a dane, i thought i would clarify.

Lars Von Trier = Lars fun Tree-uhr


Carl Theodore Dreyer = Carl Theodore Dry-uhr (Actually it's pronounced: Karl Te-oh-door Dry-uhr, but that's probably a tad too much for foreigners)

Danish is a retarded language so i would advise you all to just give up. If you have anymore questions regarding Danish names, just pm me and i will post here.

[sir karl]

Can anyone tell me what's the correct spelling of Rohmer's first name?

Éric or Eric

I've seen both variants so far and now I'm not so sure anymore myself... thanks!

[Sander2]

It's not a film or a director, but I'm pretty curious how you would pronounce the Dutch word 'angstschreeuw'. It means 'scream of fear'.

[LQ]

It's not a film or a director, but I'm pretty curious how you would pronounce the Dutch word 'angstschreeuw'. It means 'scream of fear'.

Hear what Mette has to say.

[unclehulot]

Dammit, where's the how NOT to pronounce your favorite director's name thread? Where else can we bitch about Robert Osborne on TCM (that's pronounced Hrobehah Ohzborrrnuh) with such gems as "A Trip to the Moon's" George Melees (rhyming with trees), and Viridiana directed by Lou-iss (as in "this is Louiss, Dolly") Bunuel. Sorry, guess I'm off topic with no correct pronunciations to contribute!

[colinr0380]

Dammit, where's the how NOT to pronounce your favorite director's name thread? Where else can we bitch about Robert Osborne on TCM (that's pronounced Hrobehah Ohzborrrnuh) with such gems as "A Trip to the Moon's" George Melees (rhyming with trees), and Viridiana directed by Lou-iss (as in "this is Louiss, Dolly") Bunuel. Sorry, guess I'm off topic with no correct pronunciations to contribute!

That reminds me of a recent announcer on Film Four introducing a film starring Barbara Stan-ick!

Though nothing beats for me the Kurosawa season on Channel 4 over Christmas 1999 in which the poor Irish continuity announcer must not have had a clue about how to pronounce the directors name, going for 'Koowass-sha-wah', with the emphasis in all the wrong places. This wouldn't have been so bad as a one off problem (as with Stan-ick lady above), if it hadn't been for this being a week long season of many of Kurosawa's films, each introduced by someone mangling his name!

(This was in his first couple of months of doing the on-screen announcements for Channel 4 programmes so perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on the guy, though he's still around now and I've the feeling that he would still mangle the name! Luckily for us I suppose Channel 4 don't show many Kurosawa films these days!)

[The Digital McGuffin]

Can anyone help me with the pronunciation of Aki Kaurismäki?

[SoyCuba]

Can anyone help me with the pronunciation of Aki Kaurismäki?

I'm quite impressed by the program that LQ linked a few posts back. Select the Finnish voice and there's not much to complain really, though the surname sounds a bit better to me when you submit it separately and not together with the first name.

[MichaelB]

Can anyone help me with the pronunciation of Aki Kaurismäki?

I'm quite impressed by the program that LQ linked a few posts back. Select the Finnish voice and there's not much to complain really, though the surname sounds a bit better to me when you submit it separately and not together with the first name.

His Wikipedia entry includes an audio pronunciation sample, though I can't vouch for its accuracy.

(EDIT - Presumably the umlaut has messed up the link, so just cut and paste!)

Dammit, where's the how NOT to pronounce your favorite director's name thread? Where else can we bitch about Robert Osborne on TCM (that's pronounced Hrobehah Ohzborrrnuh) with such gems as "A Trip to the Moon's" George Melees (rhyming with trees), and Viridiana directed by Lou-iss (as in "this is Louiss, Dolly") Bunuel. Sorry, guess I'm off topic with no correct pronunciations to contribute!

The Italian trailer for Greystoke seems to think it was directed by Oog Udson.

Then again, I'm in no position to point the finger, as I committed the unforgivable solecism of referring to "Marcel Lozinski" (pronounced as spelt) to a distinguished Polish film historian a fortnight ago. I should of course have said "Łoziński", which sounds more like "Wozingsky".

Mispronouncing names out of ignorance is one thing, but doing it out of carelessness (and in front of someone who actually knows the guy personally) is much more embarrassing!

[SoyCuba]

Can anyone help me with the pronunciation of Aki Kaurismäki?

I'm quite impressed by the program that LQ linked a few posts back. Select the Finnish voice and there's not much to complain really, though the surname sounds a bit better to me when you submit it separately and not together with the first name.

His Wikipedia entry includes an audio pronunciation sample, though I can't vouch for its accuracy.

(EDIT - Presumably the umlaut has messed up the link, so just cut and paste!)

Yes, it's very accurate. And while we're discussing pronouncing names of directors I might also add that spelling the name Kaurismäki correctly with the umlaut might be a good idea in case one wants to be accurate as "kauris" is a deer species and "mäki" means hill. I'm sure "kaurismaki" would be an interesting looking animal as maki means lemuridae in english.

[kidc85]

Sort of on topic, but with names like Von Trier and Del Toro if you were going to list them alphabetically would they come under V and D or would they both be under T?

(Edit: And La Bute?)

[colinr0380]

I remember hearing in the Tranceformer documentary that the 'von' in von Trier is a fake one, so I suppose under 'T' for him!

[Antoine Doinel]

(Edit: And La Bute?)

It's LaBute, not La Bute.

[Mr Sausage]

Gregory posted this site in the Barmy's Porn-Star Obsession thread, which might help everyone find the pronounciations they're looking for.

[Cinetwist]

I remember hearing in the Tranceformer documentary that the 'von' in von Trier is a fake one, so I suppose under 'T' for him!

Isn't it a rule that if you're a director and have von in your name that it has to be fake?

Stroheim and Sternberg faked it too.

[mikkelmark]

I remember hearing in the Tranceformer documentary that the 'von' in von Trier is a fake one, so I suppose under 'T' for him!

Think it was a nick name he got during film school by the other students, and used later because he liked it.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Frantisek Vlacil?

[LQ]

Frantisek Vlacil?

I've posted this program somewhere in this thread, but I'll post it again: per Acapela, "František Vláčil" = Frantishek VLAchill

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Andrew Robinson's The Inner Eye actually opens with that very topic:

For readers of this book who wish to know the Bengali pronunciation of 'Satyajit Ray', 'Shottojeet Rye' is about as close as one can get. Almost every 's' in Bengali is a soft 's'. Most Indians who are not from Bengal will pronounce the name 'Sat-y-a-jit Ray', with a hard 's' and his second name rhymed with 'say' -- just as a westerner would tend to do. Either pronunciation seems to me equally acceptable outside Bengal.

[puxzkkx]

Where do you put the stresses in "Masaki Kobayashi"?

It seems like most 4 syllable last names have the accent on the second syllable -- see my earlier post -- but I've never heard Kobayashi actually pronounced in Japanese. Probably, Masaki has a first accent syllable (but don't bet real money on this).

All the syllables in Japanese are stressed equally, but to western ears it would be MA-Sa-Ki Ko-BA-Ya-Shi. Also, every syllable in Japanese is pronounced exactly the same in every word.

The vowels in Japanese are pronounced:
a = car
i = teeth
u = look (NEVER pucker your lips when pronouncing "u" or you will DEFINITELY sound like a foreigner to the Japanese.)
e = step
o = pour

The japanese syllables are:
A I U E O
KA KI KU KE KO
KYA KYU KYO
GA GI GU GE GO
GYA GYU GYO
SA SHI* SU SE SO
ZA JI** ZU ZE ZO
SHA SHU [SHE] SHO
JA*** JU*** JO***
TA CHI TSU TE TO
DA DE DO
CHA CHU CHO
NA NI NU NE NO
NYA NYU NYO
HA HI FU HE HO
HYA HYU HYO
BA BI BU BE BO
BYA BYU BYO
PA PI PU PE PO
PYA PYU PYO
MA MI MU MO
MYA MYU MYO
YA YU YO
RA RI RU RE RO
RYA RYU RYO
WA (W)O**** N

*sometimes romanized as "Si"
**sometimes romanized as "Zi"
***sometimes romanized as "Jya", "Jyu", "Jyo"
****syllable rarely used in writing except as an honorific

Sometimes sounds such as "She", "Di" or "Wu" - sounds which didn't exist in classical Japanese - are today replicated using a combination of classical Japanese syllables. This occurs sometimes when transliterating loanwords into Japanese.

hope this is of some help to those seeking pronunciation guides for Japanese words. It is actually a really easy language for Westerners to learn to pronounce because there's no tricky "rough, plough, through" business and every word is just a combination of a preset system of syllables.

P.S: If you ever see a Japanese word or name with two 'n's in it, the first 'n' is pronounced as a syllable itself. In this way, the proper pronunciation of "Konnichi Wa" is KO-N-NI-CHI WA.

Hirokazu Koreeda, for those curious, is pronounced HI-RO-KA-ZU KO-RE-E-DA. Using traditional romanization methods, the 'e' in his last name would actually have a macro over it.

It would sound like the 'e' was long, and in his first name the stress would sound, to Western ears, to be on the 'ro', as in "hee-rock-ah-zoo".

Also, Japanese names are, in polite conversation, always said family name first. i.e.
OZU Yasujiro (oh-zoo yah-sue-jee-roh)
OSHIMA Nagisa (oh-shee-mah na-gee-sa)
KINOSHITA Keisuke (kee-noshe-ta case-kay)
SUZUKI Seijun (soo-zoo-kee say-joon)
NARUSE Mikio (nah-roo-say mee-kee-oh)
etc
But remember not to round the lips when pronouncing the 'u' vowel!

Among very close friends (esp. younger people) first names may be used, usually with an honorific suffix -san (for all adults and girls from about 13 onwards), -kun (for boys up to about 16-18), -chan (for girls up to about 13). But in the Japanese common parlance, these directors' names would be said in the 'Chinese' style. However, it isn't 'vogue' to do this for these names in the Western world, and Japanese persons of note haven't really expressed as much of a desire to have their names said in the traditional way overseas as, say, many Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean persons of note have (although with Korean names it is a bit more fluid than Japanese).

[MichaelB]

Miklós Jancsó appears to be something like Mikloosh Jonkshoo, if the pronunciation I heard the other day was anything to go by. The source was his ex-wife, so I imagine she'd know.

And Béla Balázs seems to be Bayla Bollaazh.

[Kirkinson]

Miklós Jancsó appears to be something like Mikloosh Jonkshoo

How are you pronouncing that "J"? I was 99.9% positive the Hungarian "J" sounded like the English "Y"....

[jsteffe]

Miklós Jancsó appears to be something like Mikloosh Jonkshoo, if the pronunciation I heard the other day was anything to go by. The source was his ex-wife, so I imagine she'd know.

And Béla Balázs seems to be Bayla Bollaazh.

If you go by standard Hungarian pronunciation, it would be "Yoncho Miklosh," but the vowels at the end of each name are held longer because they're accented. That's how I heard my Hungarian colleague pronounce it, and he knows many people in the Hungarian film industry, including Jancsó himself. I worked with him closely on subtitling Hungarian films for a couple years.

Perhaps Jancsó's ex-wife was pronouncing his name so that non-Hungarians could recognize it?

"Bayla Bollaazh" seems about right.

I think this repeats what you can find elsewhere on this thread, but as far as I can tell:

s = "sh"
ss = double (i.e., longer) "sh"
sz = "s"
cs = "ch" as in "church" (csárdás = "chardash")
zs = "zh" (Balázs = "Bollaazh" as MichaelB notes)
gy = more or less like "ge" in "George."
ly = "y" ("Mihály" rhymes with "knee-high")
j = "y" as in "yes"
I'm also pretty sure that "ny" at the end of a word is pronounced as a single sound, somewhat like the "gn" in "gnocchi," except more clipped.

It would be great if we had one of our native Hungarian speakers write up a name pronunciation table!

[puxzkkx]

Also, a note for Hungarian directors - in Hungary family names are said first, as they are with Asian names. He would be referred to as Jancsó Miklós. As far as I know, Hungary is the only European country that does this.