Thank you to Guy Kawasaki for this fabulous INFOGRAPHIC, which can be quite handy for those of us in voice-over. We can learn big stuff here. I’m personally bookmarking this for future reference.
http://holykaw.alltop.com/pronouncing-30-brand-names-incorrectly-infographic?gk4
This is incredible stuff. And it will help, with a few exceptions. Like this morning in my home studio for instance. I had a Source-Connect recording session with a production studio in Milan, Italy. The ad agency and client are both huge internationally. (you have definitely hear of them, but I’m not naming names.) The script was in English, but I was directed to say the client name brand in its native German delivery.
Love this. I had no idea Ikea was pronounced that way.
However, I question Volkswagen. I’ve never heard that pronunciation before in a commercial spot. I’ve hears “VOLKS-wagon” “VOKES-wagon” and “VOLKES-vagun” (if you’re going for a German accent) but never the way its presented in the graphic.
I questioned the same thing… what pronunciation – U.S. English, or German, or what? the article seems to combine English and German pronunciations… When I took German in high school, our native-German teacher told us the correct German pronunciation was “folks vah-gun”.
If you’re going for the German pronunciation, it should be more like Fokes-Vahgon.
I question leaving the V sounding like a V and the insertion of an R sound.
Thanks for this, Bobbin! Would be helpful, as with ah-DEE-das, to know which syllable has the emphasis. Many of my clients offer the “phonetic” pronunciation, but don’t tell me which syllable has the emphasis. It should be in all caps, like Adidas, above. shev-ro-LAY, stell-ah ar-TWA, etc.
Very good guide! I recently worked on something international for Adidas and the pronunciation was tricky to sort out. It was for US and international markets. The overseas producers weren’t sure what to do so I gave them both the right and wrong pronunciations. Americans have always said it wrong. Turns out it’s named for the founder Adolf “Adi (Ah-DEE)” Dassler.