Medvedev looking coy, Davos 2007
The other day the Financial Times featured a piece written by… wait for it… Dmitry Medvedev. Scoop.
Of course my favourite thing about Russia’s President is his name, which regularly endures varied pronunciation by broadcast journalists, and which is perfect for rolling around the tongue when in experimental mood. Med-VYAY-dev? MED-vedev? Med-vyeah-deff? All pleasing in different ways.
The title of Mr Medvedev’s article:“Why I had to recognize Georgia’s breakaway regions“, is also entertaining, in sounding somehow reminiscent of a Take-a-Break special. One could imagine a similar piece: “Why I had to recognize Ashley’s breakaway regions” by Cheryl Cole.
Anyway, in the interests of fairness, I am happy to say the FT today published another comment piece, this time from Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia. His headline was, perhaps appropriately, less confessional, more accusatory: “Moscow Plans to Redraw the Map of Europe“.
Medvedev is also unfortunate enough to share a name with the Russian lolcat equivalent – a meme that involves pictures of a bear (‘medved’ in russian) with the legend ‘preved, medved’ (a mangling of ‘hello, bear’). It’s as unfunny as it sounds – but hey, that goes with the territory.
As for newscasters: have you heard the theory that you can monitor the importance of a country by how carefully newscasters attempt ‘authentic’ pronunciation. e.g. with rising oil prices, the Venezuelan president has turned from Hewgo Chavez to Ugo Shavez. Russia is now The Enemy, so Medvedev’s name gets interestingly mangled. And at some point they’re going to start attempting tones for Chinese politicians….
I’m always amused by the varying pronunciations of names and places by broadcasters on the radio. The other day, a journalist friend of mine called Nkem (pronounced En-Kem) was reporting on the Kingsnorth protest on Radio 4. His colleague Evan Davis evidently hadn’t been briefed and called him Nikam throughout – like the camera.
Also, (and slightly more off-point) have you ever noticed how many broadcasters from the south of England now insist on pronouncing Newcastle or Lancaster with a shortened “a” vowel in an effort, perhaps, to identify with them northerners? Odd, really, because they don’t seem to do it with European cities or countries (although they sometimes do make an effort with the middle-east). Ever heard a journalist say “Paris” as the French do, in a serious news bulletin?
Is there any information about this subject in other languages?