Pronunciation advice - Sebastian Vettel

India is being congratulated by everyone for organizing its first Grand Prix successfully. However, the Indian media hasn't managed to get the pronunciation of the guy who won the race correct. No one did. Not even the ladida English channels. Sebastian Vettel is pronounced as zay-bah-sti-ahn fettle. In the initial position in German names 'v' is pronounced as 'f'. In Hindi, this would read as ज़ेबास्तियान फ़िटल. In the surname the vowel sound is actually a short 'e', as in bed. But it is difficult to show in Hindi. 

Pronunciation advice - Turkey earthquake

One of the worst ever earthquakes recently hit Turkey's Southeast region. The cities affected are Van and Ercis. The correct pronunciation of these names are vahn and urge-ish. In Hindi this would read as वान and अर्जीश .

The Turkish Prime Minister is Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Indians would be more comfortable with this name if it was written as Rajab Tayyab Erdogan. But nonetheless the pronunciation is redge-up tie-up air-though-an. (redge rhymes with dredge)

In Hindi, this would read as रिजप तय्यप एर्द्वान 

Pronunciation advice - Byyappanahalli

Another Indian city gets the metro. BengaLuru now has Namma Metro. The initial phase runs between Mahatma Gandhi Road (MG Road) and ByyappanahaLLi. The  way the name of the destination has been written, has created some confusion among media personalities. The correct pronunciation of the name is buy-up-and-a-hully (hully rhymes with sully). In Hindi this would read as बैयप्पनहळ्लि. (the 'ai' sound is pronounced the Bhojpuri or the South Indian way). If you can read KannaDa this reads as ಬೈಯಪ್ಪನಹಳ್ಳಿ

One of the stations on the initial route is Halasuru. The pronunciation of this word is hull-a-sue-rue. In Hindi this would read हलसूरु. In KannaDa this would read as ಹಲಸೂರು 

Pronunciation advice - Francois Hollande

The Socialist nominee for the 2012 France Presidential election has been announced. So he might be the next French President. No harm in learning the right pronunciation. 

France-wah oh-lawn-th(e) (Do not pronounce the last sound of 'the')

or 

फ़्रांसवा ओलॉन्द

The 'r' in French of course is closer to 'h'. But saying it with the normal 'r' is also close to being right. 

Pronunciation advice - Dilma Rousseff

Prime Minister Dr Singh is meeting the president of Brazil in Pretoria. Her name is as usual being mauled in the Indian media. The correct pronunciation is 

jew-ma who-safe (the pronunciation is actually 'seff' with the shorter level, but even this is close enough)

or 

ज्यूमा हूसेफ़ 

The current pronunciation being peddled in Indian media is दिलमा रूसेफ़. Sounds like the title of a Bhojpuri film!

Pronunciation Advice : Nobel Prize for Literature Tomas Transtromer

Tomas Transtromer To-ma's Tronn's-true-mer or टुमास ट्रॉन्सट्रुमर. The 't' is actually a bit soft. You can see the actual Swedish pronunciation here 

Pronunciation Advice - Nobel Prize Winners for 2011 Medicine Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffman, Ralph Steinman

The Nobel Prize season has started. The first award goes to jointly to three people (the first two get one half, and the third - who unfortunately is dead now - gets the other half). Their names are as usual being mauled by the media. Wonder why no one bothers to get the names right! 

Bruce Beutler is pronounced as Bruce Boy-tler or ब्रूस बॉइट्लर (Sounds a bit like the surname of our own Jagdish Tytler) 

Jules Hoffman has French origins. Hence the name is pronounced like Jules Verne's name. zhool Hoffman. The zh sound is the same as that of 's' in pleasure. षूल हॉफ़मन 

Ralph Steinman has unfortunately died before receiving his award. Nobel never awards posthumous awards (that's the reason Gandhi did not get it), but if the award has been announced and the laureate dies before the presentation, they still make the award. Well Ralph Steinman is simple. Ralph Stine-mun or रॅल्फ़ स्टाइनमन 

Commonly Mispronounced words 27 - Telangana

This word has been hogging headlines for a long time now. The word is being pronounced as Tale-and-garner (the 't' being the soft French 't') in the major media. The correct pronunciation however is tell-and-garner (the 't' is the soft 't'). If you can read Hindi, then you must note that the 'na' sound is hard. So it reads as तॆलंगाणअ (the 'e' sound is short like in tell or bell). 

So TelangaaNa reads as tell-and-garner or तॆलंगाणअ. If you can read Telugu, it would read as తెలంగాణ. In Tamil, it would read as தெலங்காண.