That didn't take long

by Daedalus on Mar 3, 2007 2:03 PM EST

It only took a couple of Spring Training games - Jeff Brantley is getting on my nerves. He never shuts up and says some pretty dumb things, plus he rails against Dunn even more than Marty. And someone needs to tell him how to pronounce Encarnacion.

Imagine when it's him and Hi, Hello, and Welcome doing the television broadcasts. I'll have to turn the sound off.

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Rails on Dunn because....

Dunn sucks

by WayneNarron on Mar 3, 2007 2:50 PM EST reply actions

I have to agree with you...on Brantley

The guy sounds senile on the air. He goes from making good observations that help (toughest pitch for a pitcher to make early in spring training) to not even being able to tell us what's going on. I need the basics...who's on base, what's the count, what's the score. Lets start there eh?

by biggsd on Mar 3, 2007 3:11 PM EST reply actions

He's stuck on his ESPN analyst shtick.

Let's get some useful information along with the opinion there, Jeffy.

And you're right about name pronunciations. It's like he's seeing them for the first time, and then he goes and says it a different way three minutes later.

Reds fandom: A study in futility and masochism.

by Ash on Mar 3, 2007 3:33 PM EST reply actions

Brantley

I remember watching Brantley once on ESPN, it was a one run game in the 9th and the closer was in w/ a guy on and Brantley's word of wisdom is "what you don't want to do right now is give up a homerun." WOW, what insight, that's why they hire former players to do that job.

I haven't liked Brantley since he made a comment awhile back about prefering St. Louis to Cincinnati. If he likes it so much better, I wish he'd have waited until the Cards had an opening and spared us intellect.

by JCH888 on Mar 3, 2007 3:59 PM EST reply actions

Listening on XM today

Got the Twins' crew today, and two things troubled me:

Joey Votto - They said his last name with two long "O" sounds: "Voe-Toe." I always pronounced it "Vaw-Toe." Am I wrong here?
Paul Janish - They went with the soft J, i.e. "Yanish." That isn't right, is it?

On another pronunciation note, Royals GM Dayton Moore was on an XM show the other day. The #1 pick in last year's draft, Luke Hochevar, is pronounced "Ho-shay-ver." Didn't see that one coming, either. I was going with "Hock-uh-vahr."

"Karma - there it was. The meaning of life, straight from Carson Daly's lips to my morphine-laced ears." -Earl Hickey

by BLee2525 on Mar 3, 2007 6:03 PM EST reply actions

C. Trent

says it's a soft J for Janish.

by pw on Mar 3, 2007 6:56 PM EST up reply actions

Veronica and I

are trying this new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it's jogging or "yogging". it might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild.

And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.

by boobs on Mar 3, 2007 7:09 PM EST up reply actions

Votto

is a short vowel sound like Marty says, but when I first started following him, I thought it was a long vowel and now force myself to say it correctly out loud every time I read it. (double consonants in the English language produce a short vowel sound - standard rule.)

And yeah, I wondered about Janish. It comes from the German surname "Janisch" which is pronounced "Yanish" but with the Ellis Island mutations of American surnames, you never know. Thom and Marty say Yanish but Brantley and the Twins announcers say Janish. Maybe we should ask Trent.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 3, 2007 9:44 PM EST up reply actions

and apparently

I am responding to a comment that says Trent says Yanish.

(Why do I not pay more attention to these things?)

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 3, 2007 9:45 PM EST up reply actions

I knew it was only a matter of time

before Daedalus chimed in on the pronunciations.

I figured Votto was the short vowel sound in keeping with rules of English grammar, but both the Twins' announcers today and the Pirates' on Thursday went with the long O. Twins' announcers may have said "Janish" yesterday, but they were definitely saying "Yanish" today. If Marty, Thom, Trent and the Twins' announcers are on one side, and Brantley is on the other, I know where I am. Yanish it is.

"Karma - there it was. The meaning of life, straight from Carson Daly's lips to my morphine-laced ears." -Earl Hickey

by BLee2525 on Mar 3, 2007 10:10 PM EST up reply actions

And when I say grammar

I mean phonics.

Excuse the beer.

"Karma - there it was. The meaning of life, straight from Carson Daly's lips to my morphine-laced ears." -Earl Hickey

by BLee2525 on Mar 3, 2007 10:15 PM EST up reply actions

i can't help it

i'm a language geek.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 3, 2007 10:49 PM EST up reply actions

Votto?

(double consonants in the English language produce a short vowel sound - standard rule.)

But isn't it an Italian name? I think it would be VOH-toh if it's Italian.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named "Bubba"?

by BubbaFan on Mar 4, 2007 6:43 AM EST up reply actions

while it is italian

many immigrant names use english pronunciation rules because the people at ellis island (or the canadian equivalent) couldn't understand what the people were saying when giving their names, so the immigration staff simply pronounced it how it looked. i imagine the vottos (or the muellers pronounced millers or the smythes pronounced smIthes) simply got tired of correcting people all of the time. i know i do when people mispronounce my name, and it is straightforward.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 5, 2007 10:05 AM EST up reply actions

Most of the Ellis Island

stories are really urban legends. Ellis Island was actually one of the most intelligently-run operations in the United States during the great immigration period. They employed hundreds of native speakers and were fastidious documentarians. That's why so many folks are able to trace there families through Ellis Island. A comparable emigre family moving to Britain through London could not do the same.

Most (certainly not all) stories of names changed result from two developments:

The multiplicity of spellings and permutations of names in the original language (also the number of different ways some immigrants decided to identify themselves. Think about the way alot of Middle Eastern names are malleable right now)
Immigrants changing or anglicizing their names once they arrived in order to seem more "American." Pride being what it is, it's easier to say some faceless bureaucracy changed our families name than admitting that the first generation changed it themselves.

Not saying that this kind of stuff never happened; it did (especially at naturalization points other than EI) but it happened on nowhere near the scale that has entered the popular imagination.

...and by "literally" I mean very figuratively

by Man Mountain on Mar 5, 2007 3:13 PM EST up reply actions

Great point

Incidentally, it was the Ellis Island thing that was responsible for Larry Biittner's name. Apparently the actual name in German is "Buttner" with the two-dot thing over the "u" (I forget what the two-dot thing is called). But when his ancestors came here, the people at Ellis Island saw the name written and thought the "u" with the two dots was actually two "i's."

by ctnyc on Mar 5, 2007 5:50 PM EST up reply actions

two dot thing

umlaut

Reds fandom: A study in futility and masochism.

by Ash on Mar 5, 2007 6:06 PM EST up reply actions

When I hear "Votto" pronounced

It makes me think of Quato from Total Recall

"Open your mind to me, Quaid...open your MIND..."

happy nightmares.

...and by "literally" I mean very figuratively

by Man Mountain on Mar 3, 2007 10:37 PM EST reply actions

Start the reactor!

Somewhere along the line I heard Voe-toe first and I've been trying to break myself of it. It's hard because I only discuss prospects in written forums. Once he busts out it will all be good, even as most of the broadcasters continue to mispronounce.

by Red Menace on Mar 4, 2007 5:14 AM EST up reply actions

Simplify, simplify

Brantley should probably just say "Jay-Vizzle." Distinguishing between long and short vowels would make his head explode.

by teb7 on Mar 4, 2007 6:11 PM EST up reply actions

to be honest

southerners don't have long and short vowel sounds - they just have one nasally sound for each. so to him "Vote-oh" and "Vot-oh" probably don't sound differently.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 4, 2007 9:46 PM EST up reply actions

True

Another example: "Ken" and "keen" can sound similar with a southern accent.

by ken on Mar 4, 2007 10:10 PM EST up reply actions

my roommate

is from tennessee, and she calls me "Reek" and asks me if I want to go get "deener".

And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.

by boobs on Mar 5, 2007 12:42 AM EST up reply actions

Is your roommate Peter Lorre?

by Red Menace on Mar 5, 2007 9:55 AM EST up reply actions

are you using soap?

i mean, if he's calling you reek...

hahaha.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 5, 2007 10:06 AM EST up reply actions

There's alot of variation in Southern accents

The classic south Georgia accent isn't nasally at all, for instance, and has very distinct long and short vowel sounds.

An example is the word "pecan." Some Southerners say "pee-can" and some say "puh-cahn" with the latter actually more prevalent in the South.

There IS less of a differentiation between long and short vowels in general, which goes back to the prevaling Scots-Irish influence throughout the Southeast. Certainly when compared to Midwesterners.

I imagine most of you speaking with those flat, short "a's" like my Dad uses. I, unfortunately, am a Southern mush mouth.

...and by "literally" I mean very figuratively

by Man Mountain on Mar 4, 2007 11:05 PM EST up reply actions

i once had that nasally flat a

but i haven't lived in ohio for seven years now and it's less flat, according to a few people who have known me and notice these things. for that, i am grateful.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for.

by Daedalus on Mar 5, 2007 9:53 AM EST up reply actions