inogolo.com news & stuff

New names added in September 2008

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:37:52 -0500

A list of new name pronunciations added in September 2008 is now on the inogolo.com website, including:

Jason Mraz
Les Misérables
Pervez Musharraf

New names added in August 2008

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:33:25 -0500

A list of new name pronunciations added in August 2008 is now on the inogolo.com website. A sampling of a few:

Bvlgari
Burberry
Lamborghini
Richard Wagner

Also, check out some new tags:

classical music
youtube (has video related to the pronunciation)
native pronunciation (has audio pronunciation by native speaker of the language of origin)

Beijing Olympics: BBC presenters get lessons in Chinese pronunciation

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:58:14 -0500

Beijing Olympics: BBC presenters get lessons in Chinese pronunciation

BBC presenters have been given an Olympic pronunciation guide "the size of a very thick brick" after complaints they were incorrectly pronouncing Chinese names and words.

Linguists at the BBC's Pronunciation Unit are said to have gone into "overdrive" as the broadcaster makes final preparations for the games.

Its linguists have drawn up lists for presenters and reporters travelling to China to make sure they get the right sounds when they talk about place names or the host country's Olympic hopefuls.

The guide comes after complaints from listeners of the World Service that the BBC cannot even pronounce the name of the capital city correctly.

According to the unit, all those people that have been using a "Beijing" with a soft "j" have got it wrong, it should be with a hard "J" - jing, instead of shing.

Full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2484757/Beijing-Olympics-BBC-presenters-get-lessons-in-Chinese-pronunciation.html

Hear the correct pronunciation of Beijing here: http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/d142/Beijing

Browser search plug in now available for Firefox and IE

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:24:04 -0500

inogolo now offers an OpenSearch-compatible plug-in that that enables searching for name pronunciations directly from your browser's web search box.

See: http://inogolo.com/plugins

New names added in May 2008

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:26:07 -0500

The list of new names added in March 2008 is now on the inogolo website.

More graduation ceremony pronunciation woes...

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:50:08 -0500

A few more in the series of articles about graduation ceremony problems that seem to pop up around this time every year--

From the South Town Star-- The last high school challenge (http://www.southtownstar.com/news/973348,05280808name.article)

From the Times Dailiy-- Graduation night puts pressure on announcers (http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080530/NEWS/805300327/1011)

From reporternews.com-- The pronunciation game, Graduation announcers sweat over difficult names (http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/may/31/the-pronunciation-game/)

Preakness pronunciation disputed

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:14:01 -0500

The name of the race is pronounced "prake-ness"-- not the commonly repeated "preek-ness" and if you dont believe it, talk to old-timers in Wayne, where a famous racehorse of long ago still is remembered as a hometown hero.

See full article at: http://www.northjersey.com/sports/moresports/Preakness_pronunciation_disputed.html

Tough Names Test Graduation Announcers

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:11:07 -0500

Tough Names Test Graduation Announcers

After years of hard work in high school or college, graduates and their parents look forward to hearing their names read aloud during the graduation ceremony. For some, that's a lot to ask.

Imagine having to read this name in front of thousands of people: Bich Ngqc Nguyen. Or Urarat Buranakongkatree.

Full Story...

In the name of diplomacy, say it right

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:06:25 -0500

In the name of diplomacy, say it right-- The importance of pronouncing Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan and other names correctly. (from the Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2008)

In the delicate world of diplomatic protocol, mispronouncing a foreign leader's name ranks among the worst of faux pas. But that is lost on many Americans. Who can forget Hillary Rodham Clinton's verbal gymnastics after being asked by Tim Russert to name the new president of Russia? (Most transcripts cleaned it up as "Medvedev -- whatever.") Or recall the guffawing last September after a draft of President Bush's speech before the United Nations was found that included the phonetic spellings of several names of foreign countries and leaders. Among them: Harare (hah-RAR-ray) and Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee).

See full story...

Commencement readers cram to prep for tongue-twister names

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:52:57 -0500

A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.

Jayne Niemi will be ready.

No-oo-TOOL-a SEE-kay-tee-way Ki-tee-ki-tee. Oo-DO-chu-koo CHIN-yea-ray Oh-boe-doe. Bat-NAI-ram-dal OT-gone-shar.

Niemi's job is to read out the graduates' names without mangling them.

see full story...

Featured name: Friedrich Nietzsche

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:06:35 -0500

One of the top names consistently searched for on inogolo is that of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Thanks to a helpful inogolo visitor, we now have a native German pronunication for Nietzsche.

See: http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/d360/Friedrich_Nietzsche

Obama's Name Mispronounced

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:05:32 -0500

Pretty funny...

Dean Singleton, chairman of The Associated Press board of directors asked Barak Obama whether he could see sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, since that is where Obama bin Laden is still at large.

See the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zy08STIQwM

Awkward Surname: The Name Game of Mispronunciation

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:43:56 -0500

Awkward Surname: The Name Game of Mispronunciation

"Hello, nice to meet you! My name is John Doe, whats yours?" "Its nice to meet you!" I respond. "My name is Emma Seemann." Laughter breaks out. No seriously, thats my name.

See full article: http://www.newuniversity.org/main/article/149

New names added in March 2008

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:02:20 -0500

The list of new names added in March 2008 is now on the inogolo website.

Voting machines mispronounce candidates names

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:38:26 -0500

I found this pretty amusing-- the computerized voting machines used in the February 12 presidential primary in Richmond, Virginia are reported to have had issues with the pronunciation of candidates names.

Barack Obama was pronounced "BEAR"-ik o-BAM-uh. Dennis Kucinich's name was also mispronounced.

Hear the mispronunciations here-- mms://wmvod.mgnetwork.com/vod/rtd/20080315_votes15.wmv

(requires Windows Media Player)

See the story from the Richmod Times-Dispatch-- Remedy in doubt for poll problem.

Stuart

How to Pronounce Fashion Names

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:51:35 -0500

From the Wall Street Journal:

How to Pronounce Fashion Names http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120534804458631005.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Medvedev. Mehd-V(y)EHD-yehf. Whatever.

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:00:32 -0500

Medvedev. Mehd-V(y)EHD-yehf. Whatever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/opinion/11tue4.html?em&ex=1205380800&en=2b8ac24682cc7094&ei=5087%0A

How to pronounce Medvedev

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:04:59 -0500

Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev's name has been in the news recently after winning the Russian presidential election.

Checkout the pronunciation to his name along with the native Russian pronunciation. We also have a link to a YouTube video of Hillary Clinton mangling Medvedev's name in a recent debate:

http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/d1581/Dmitry_Medvedev

New names added in February

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:18:45 -0500

The list of new names added in February 2008 is now on the inogolo website.

Don’t Just Call Me Jane

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:04:27 -0500

From the March 3 2008 issue of Newsweek, freelance writer Johnna Kaplan shares the challenges of having a unique name that people constantly get wrong.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/114722

Pronunciation Guide to the American Idol Top 24 -- Season 7

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:02:50 -0500

For any American Idol fans! A new pronunciation guide is on the inogolo site-- Pronunciation guide to the American Idol Top 24 -- Season 7.

Stuart

Name pronunciation web search engine

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:45:53 -0500

inogolo has a new Google-based custom search engine that searches dozens of name pronunciation websites and pages for name pronunciations.

New names added in January

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:00:52 -0500

The list of names added in January is now posted to the website.

Academy Award nominee pronunciation guide

stuyoder@inogolo.com — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:57:45 -0500

There is a pronunciation guide to this year's Academy Award nominees on the webiste.