Talking rubbish – pronunciation guide for the clueless

Today we’re going to learn a simple set of rules concerning pronunciation of words.

The Australian Open (tennis – not golf) has just finished. While I was watching coverage I was appalled at the poor pronunciation of some of the player’s names by these so called professional commentators. WTA player Dominika Cibulkova and ATP player Alexandr Dolgopolov were two that really suffered at the hands of commentators. The mangling of these surnames was truly breathtaking to hear. It should be inexcusable for a professional commentator to mispronounce a player’s name as each player profile contains a guide to pronunciation.

It’s not Ci-bulk-ova it’s Ci-bul-ko-va. There are four separate vowels, so there are four separate syllables. It’s as easy as that. I discovered these rules when I began teaching myself Latin and have found them remarkably robust.

1. A separate vowel, or vowel pair (a diphthong) creates a syllable with the preceding consonant (if there is one). Note: Y is regarded as a vowel if sandwiched between consonants.

2. Orphan consonants are appended to the end of the preceding syllable.

To my surprise these rules work for many, many languages. Latin, English, Maori and even the impressively vowelled surnames of Sri Lankan cricketers! Here’s a sampling of longish words and a guide to their syllable breakdown.

Dolgopolov (Alexandr – Urkanian tennis player). Dol-go-po-lov (not Dol-gop-o-lov)

Waimakariri (Maori). Wai-ma-ka-ri-ri (not Wai-mak-a-ri-ri). Yes it’s got six vowels, but the first pair is a diphthong and therefore treated as a single unit. This first syllable is pronounced why with a soft h.

Tyrannosaurus (a dinosaur). ty-ran-no-sau-rus (not ty-rann-o-saur-us)

Octavusdecimus (Latin, eighteenth). oc-ta-vus-de-ci-mus (not oct-a-vus-dec-i-mus)

Methylergonovine (a drug). met-hy-ler-go-no-vi-ne. See how the “y” is treated as a vowel? In this case it can be argued that the “th” should be sounded as a unit rather than splitting it across syllables, roughly the same way as a pair of vowels form a diphthong. So we can accept me-thy-ler-go-no-vi-ne which still has the correct number of syllables, just a slightly different emphasis due to the transplanted “t”.

I love the shape and sounds of the names of the Sri Lankan cricketers in particular. To be absolutely fair, most cricket commentators make an excellent job of pronouncing these names.

Jayawardene (Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, known as Mahela, is captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team). Ja-ya-war-de-ne.

Kulasekara (Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan Kulasekara is a Sri Lankan cricketer). Ku-la-se-ka-ra.

Muttiah Muralitharan (former Sri Lankan test cricketer & extraordinary spin bowler). Mut-tiah Mu-ra-li-tha-ran.

So the next time you’re presented with a name or word you are unsure of, apply these simple rules and you’ll be better-than-most when you come to speak it.