The Sword and Laser discussion

How are you pronouncing Kovacs' name? My first inclination was to pronounce it exactly like it looks with a hard K followed by a S at the end. That's how Tom said it during the kick-off episode. Then I realized two things:

1) In the first few pages of the book, Kovacs comments on how only some people pronounce his name correctly with a CH sound at the end.
2) There was a character on ER named Luka Kovac who pronounced it with the CH sound at the end. That's a real-world, Yugoslavian name and its pronunciation.

I realize that name pronunciation is a minor thing, but I'm curious what everyone else says in their head.

I am in the habit of the hard K. I have a co-worker whose last name is Kovacs and she pronounces it that way so it kept coming out that way.

When the character tells you how to pronounce it, I see no reason not to pronounce it that way.

I read it as Kovaks, but have forced myself to pronounce it Kovatch, as Tak seems to be kinda peeved at people pronouncing it the wrong way.

Tak will be visiting Tom soon. He's better backup his stack.

Listening to the audio version, Kovatch is the correct way to say it, for whatever that's worth. Since I only listened to it, seeing it as Kovacs looks weird. I had a friend last name Novac and he said it No-vack so that's how I would have heard it in my head if only reading with eyes.

I've been mentally pronouncing it "Koh-vawks", with a little bit of back-throat noise on the C. That was how I interpreted the text. I did not get the audio narration for this one. I'd prefer to pronounce it the way he wants it, but seeing other people's pronunciations makes me realize that the text is not as clear as it could have been. Maybe Tom and Veronica should ask Morgan to say it for them.

I believe Ernie Kovacs pronounced it 'Kovaks'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGc47...

Interview, he discusses the name starting at 2:34

Sean wrote: "When the character tells you how to pronounce it, I see no reason not to pronounce it that way."

Sean & Michelle are correct. It's "Kovatch" and the character specifically mentions that in the book, and is confirmed by the author's pronunciation in the video. Thanks Serendi for the link! :-)

As you may know Kovács is a quite common Hungarian Surname. It means "Smith".
For the correct pronunciation you can use the listen option of Google Translate.

http://translate.google.hu/#en/hu/smith

I kept mentally pronouncing it with the K (even though I knew it was wrong) and I figure since it's only in my head I don't care if Tak would approve.

Beren wrote: "As you may know Kovács is a quite common Hungarian Surname. It means "Smith".
For the correct pronunciation you can use the listen option of Google Translate.

http://translate.google.hu/#en/hu/smith"

I think I'm in love with the pronunciation lady.

Serendi and Beren, thanks for the links. Good stuff there.

For what it may be worth (and because I didn't mention it in my original post) the pronunciation in my head has been pretty accurate. Phew. Better than how I did with Wheel of Time character names.

OK, next question: How about Takeshi?

Joseph wrote: "OK, next question: How about Takeshi?"

I've already been - but thanks for the suggestion.

Joseph wrote: "OK, next question: How about Takeshi?"

Ta-ke-sh(i)

"A" as in "bra"

"E" as in "get"

"I" like the e in "we"

However "i" in Japanese is often unvoiced when it comes between voiceless consonants (as in "Takeshi Kovacs"). "Unvoiced" isn't quite the same as a silent letter in English -- you still move your lips to form the vowel and give it as much time as if you were pronouncing it, but you don't actually vocalize it.

Sean wrote: "Ta-ke-sh(i)

"A" as in "bra"

"E" as in "get"

"I" like the e in "we"

However "i" in Japanese is often unvoiced when it comes between voicel..."

Thanks! I've actually watched enough Japanese movies & anime to take a stab at it, but it's hard to keep from mentally Anglicizing it -- ta-KE-shi instead of TA-ke-shi. (At least I assume the stress should be on the first syllable.)

Sean wrote: "However "i" in Japanese is often unvoiced when it comes between voiceless consonants"

So when Kawahara calls him "Takeshi-san", would you hear the I, or not?

Joseph wrote: "I've actually watched enough Japanese movies & anime to take a stab at it, but it's hard to keep from mentally Anglicizing it -- ta-KE-shi instead of TA-ke-shi. (At least I assume the stress should be on the first syllable.)"

Japanese has flat even stress relative to English. Our own word stress habits make Japanese sound to us like it has initial stress.

Sean wrote: "However "i" in Japanese is often unvoiced when it comes between voiceless consonants"
Joanna wrote: "So when Kawahara calls him "Takeshi-san", would you hear the I, or not?"

"e" also devoices.
It is rare for two syllables in a row to devoice. I think you would lose the "e" not the "i", which may be reduced. The closest pronunciation would be ta-k-shi-san. (Try saying ta-ke-sh-san)