Why the hell are some of the announcers (specifically Dan Hicks and Bob Murphy) pronouncing M.A. Jiminez's last name "JimineTH"? Anyone else notice this or is it just me who finds it annoying as hell. I took 5 years of Spanish growing up and never heard of this being correct. It's like they're all really making a point of emphasizing the "TH" on the end like M.A. asked them to do it or something. Any insight?

BDLz

i keep hearing that too, actually i hear it a lot for spanish names in other sports too (i watch a lot of soccer)
i just assumed that its the correct accent...

Is this the same Dan Hicks who introduced both 'Ben-ahrd' Hunt and 'Ben-ahrd' Gallacher on Thursday? Or was that the other rent-a-Dan who also can't pronounce names properly?

No wonder.

At least Longer's not playing this year.

Thats the correct Spanish pronunciation (him-en-eth)

Just like its 'an-hell' not 'ang-gel'.



Edit:

Mat, didn't you mean " At least Longer's no langer playing this year"?

Has Olazabal's name been butchered yet?

i can confirming having heard some mentions of 'ola-tha-bal'

I always thought that Zs were pronounced w/ more of an S sound than a TH in Spanish. Maybe it just sounds overly strange because they are emphasizing the last syllable instead of the 2nd syllable and exaggerating the "TH"

BDLz

It's because the king of spain used to have a lisp and he made everyone talk with one. It's correct if you are talking about spanish spanish and not some kind of mexican spanish

"Himiness" versus "Himineth". The "th" for "s" is an example of Castillan Spanish that is the fairly standard pronunciation in many parts of Spain. It is an affectation that comes from King Carlos who had a speech impediment and lisped. The story goes that people in his court talked with a lisp so that he would not be embararred or maybe just to curry favor.

Millions of Spanish speakers throughout the world do not use the "th" for "s" at all.

I did mention this a while ago but we've got a junior at our club that pronounces Miguels surname as "Jim and Les"

That's the correct Castilian pronunciation. It's actually called a ceceo. Legend has it that Spaniards developed a lisp because King Ferdinand had one and people wanted to copy him. That's likely untrue, but it's a good story. In any case, it does seem like basic courtesy to make an effort to pronounce a participant's name correctly.

It's because of the different dialects within Spain--Andalusian being southern Spain, and Castilian being further north. The main differences are that some Andalusian dialects use pronounce the z, ce, and ci with an s sound while Castilian doesn't. That's why Sergio's last name is pronounced with the "s".


Many of the first Spanish settlers here were from the southern part of the country, which is why most Latin American countries use the "s" pronunciation.
Now when you're friends wonder why the announcers are butchering some of the Spaniards' names you can throw out this little nugget of information.

I don't know if the history is right, but I do know that the "th" heavily used in spain and is how there dialect is different than Mexican or Puerto Rican spoken spanish. I was stationed there for 8 months with the Seabee's and my buddy was mexican and he would go nuts with there enunciation of some words and visa versa.

I know when I went back to California and would speak spanish I had the th in the words ie: servithio vice servisio (sp?) or my spanish is horrible now but instead of sedisa (how do you say in spanish) it was seditha (sp?)

Pete

Just different dialects of the same language...no different than over here in the States, lots of different accents and dialects.

In Spain, gracias (thank you) sounds like grathias.

On another note, did you hear to emcee on the first tee butcher Stenson's last name until it finally came out "Stevenson"?

Spain is the only spanish speaking country that uses the Z (zeta) for s and z, we (Argentina) and the rest use Z (th..) only with the written z, like zafiro or zapato.

That's exactly what I was trying to say.. the TH is just the dialect of spain.

Hell go to Italy, they have more dialects than anyother language on the planet.

Pete

It's specifically from the Andalucia area of Spain (South). The speak a different dialect of Spanish then you might be used to taking Spanish classes in the States which typically teach the Mexican variety.

Last names dont necessarily follow typical pronunciations do they?

This is interesting.

Can anyone also enlighten me how come the announcers pronounce 'Villegas' as "Ve-jay-gas" instead of "Ve-ye-gas"?

The two ll's is a letter in the alphabet, and for us (Puerto Ricans anyways) it has a 'j' sound. So for me, it's the proper pronuniciation, but I'm not sure how it's pronounced in Colombia so maybe it's supposed to be the 'y' there...

Cant stand NBC commentry. CBS should be given all the golf coverage along with the golf Channel.

Yes! The first tee announcer pronounced his name "Hendrick Stevenson". What a joke that was!

In Colombia (and probably some other countries as well) the double L is pronounced like a J. So instead of Ve-yay-gas like we would think it would be, it is Ve-jay-gas. I heard him explain that on TGC (I think) a while back.

Watch Basketball there's a NBA player with the last name of Najera, and the announcer always go w/
Na-ha-ra, always irritates my family, since our family friends go by Na-hear-ra!!!

Basketball? How about the pronunciation of Boston's team? I'm sure the Irish love that butchery!

I've spent considerable time living in Spain and Latin America...The use of the "theta" pronunciation is considered the correct pronunciation for z and soft c, nation-wide in Spain. Although the sound is softer in the south, it is still theta when you listen closely. You won't find "theta" taught anywhere but Spain.

The "ll" sound in Colombia is almost the "y" sound you find in Central American and Mexico, but in fact is a soft j. To make the sound, say the word "vision" in English, and the sound you make for the "s" in vision as as close as you can come in English to the right sound.

The same letters are a slightly harder J in Argentina, but still not the American pronunciation of the letter.

Spanish speakers not from Spain tend to get a grin out of the accents of Spaniards, but no more than Spaniards get out of the Latin American accents they run across (think US vs. UK, and you are in the ballpark, or France vs. Canada in French).

Having mastered a few, they all have their charm.

Bingo. My wife is Spanish and she's often commented on the different pronunciation of Latin Americans. She always says OlaTHabel (whom she knew when she was younger) and JimineTH (who is a friend of the family).

First, I have a co-worker with the exact same last name, Najera, and he pronounces it Na-ha-ra.

Second, regarding Jiminez I had to ask my wife, who is a Spanish teacher, if the announcers were pronouncing it correctly and she said that in Spain the "z" can be pronounced "th".

I always preferred pronouncing it 'may can ee co.' ; )

OK language experts, how come Camillo has the 'y' sound and not the 'j' sound?

The "j" sound applies to the double LL, not the single L.....Camilo (Ca-mee-lo) Villegas (Vee-Jay-Gus).

Jiminez's name: always pronounced it "My Hair is a Mess"

Oh.....oops....I thought it was Camillo with two l's. Oh well, spiderman is much easier to say and spell.

Owe-la-thaw-bull= Olazabal
Vee-jay-goss =Villegas