Player Discussion Pavel Mintyukov

[The Midnight Burrito]

Yeah, thanks, I am an English teacher and fluent in five languages with basic knowledge in four more. But thank you for your very helpful insight. But it's nice to see that you know how I pronounce names given that you've never heard a single word of mine.

Offended at the very idea? INTERESTING. Especially given your little pronunciation lesson was immediately debunked in the video by Minty himself.

 

[Rybread86]

 

[Caser]

Not really. His name in Cyrillic is павел минтюков, which is translitterated as 'Pavel Mintyukov'.

From a linguistic perspective this whole name discussion is very easy. Take it from your friendly neighbourhood linguist (and someone who's studied Russian for ~3 years back in the day). It's pronounced Mint-yu-kov, you just aspirate the 't' and soften the 'v' to what is close to an f sound.

What might cause some confusion is that often players from Europe, Russians especially, try to "Americanize" the pronunciations of their names to fit the US announcers mouths better. I don't know if the tch sound idea comes from that or whether it's just people misinterpreting his aspiration, but that's one possibility.

I think the confusion here comes from the thing that when pronouncing the soft 't' is really close to 'ch' both in terms of the sound and the mechanics. I mean, you can pronounce "tyu" and then "chyu" and compare how similar are the tongue movements. So when pronounced quickly it might sound like a bit like "chyu", but if someone would ask Mintyukov to pronounce it more slowly it would be clearly "tyu" even for the English speakers.

 

[Sean Garrity]

I'm even more confused than when I first asked the question, but game day!

 

[olgerd]

Offended at the very idea? INTERESTING. Especially given your little pronunciation lesson was immediately debunked in the video by Minty himself.

As a native Russian speaker, I can say with confidence that Pavel in this video pronounces his last name, adjusting to American pronunciation. In no case will the surname "Минтюков" be pronounced exactly like that in Russian. I can write his last name as Mintükòv, where the “t” will be soft, and the accent on the “o”. This is if you want to know a more accurate pronunciation of his last name in Russian. But I advise you not to worry about this, almost all the names of Russian players are pronounced with American specifics and this is normal.

 

[Kaners PPGs]

How'd he play last night?

 

[Gliff]

How'd he play last night?

Best defensemen on the ice.

I’m trying very hard to keep my expectations down…

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

As a native Russian speaker, I can say with confidence that Pavel in this video pronounces his last name, adjusting to American pronunciation. In no case will the surname "Минтюков" be pronounced exactly like that in Russian. I can write his last name as Mintükòv, where the “t” will be soft, and the accent on the “o”. This is if you want to know a more accurate pronunciation of his last name in Russian. But I advise you not to worry about this, almost all the names of Russian players are pronounced with American specifics and this is normal.

Interesting point. I work alongside (and daily encounter) people from many other countries. I even married one! So I try to pronounce people's names the way they like to hear them, though of course it's not easy just to pick up the trick of pronunciation, for me in particular the further I get from the Romance languages. Transliteration can also be a problem as you've just demonstrated. Sometimes the sound just can't be communicated in English; it has to be heard.

Like in the video, Pavel says one of his favorite players is Sergachev but that's not how he pronounces it. And I remember Sergei Fedorov going on a local radio station when he came to the Ducks and getting drawn into a brief discussion about how to correctly pronounce his name, because they asked. He wasn't saying "Fedorov," it was more like "fyodorovf," but as you imply, he wasn't insisting on it. "Fedorov" was good enough in the end.

But anyway you've helped me make my implicit point. Pronunciation is hard even for well-meaning people, nobody I work with pronounces my name appropriately and I don't sit around bitching that these damn Russians or Estonians or Swiss butcher English names (which they do). It's an ungenerous thing to hold against an entire people.

 

[olgerd]

Interesting point. I work alongside (and daily encounter) people from many other countries. I even married one! So I try to pronounce people's names the way they like to hear them, though of course it's not easy just to pick up the trick of pronunciation, for me in particular the further I get from the Romance languages. Transliteration can also be a problem as you've just demonstrated. Sometimes the sound just can't be communicated in English; it has to be heard.

Like in the video, Pavel says one of his favorite players is Sergachev but that's not how he pronounces it. And I remember Sergei Fedorov going on a local radio station when he came to the Ducks and getting drawn into a brief discussion about how to correctly pronounce his name, because they asked. He wasn't saying "Fedorov," it was more like "fyodorovf," but as you imply, he wasn't insisting on it. "Fedorov" was good enough in the end.

But anyway you've helped me make my implicit point. Pronunciation is hard even for well-meaning people, nobody I work with pronounces my name appropriately and I don't sit around bitching that these damn Russians or Estonians or Swiss butcher English names (which they do). It's an ungenerous thing to hold against an entire people.

It would be more correct to pronounce the surnames Сергачёв and Фёдоров as Sergachöv and Födorov. In Russian there is a letter "ë", which after a consonant sounds something like "ö" in Swedish. And sometimes, to transliterate a surname from Cyrillic to Latin, the letter “ё” is transferred as “e”, and sometimes as “yo”. The fact is that the Russian language does not have a unified Latin alphabet, so the same word can be transliterated in different ways. But for convenience, you can imagine that there is "ö". Sergachöv, Födorov, Kovalöv, Sömin, etc.

 

[Gliff]

With how good Carlsson was, I still was more impressed with Minty. He was the best defensemen on the ice against a cup contender with a top 5 defensemen on the team.

Just all around amazing start.

 

[ScarTroy]

With how good Carlsson was, I still was more impressed with Minty. He was the best defensemen on the ice against a cup contender with a top 5 defensemen on the team.

Just all around amazing start.

He gets better every game. The way he’s playing he absolutely will be in the Calder conversation.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

With how good Carlsson was, I still was more impressed with Minty. He was the best defensemen on the ice against a cup contender with a top 5 defensemen on the team.

Just all around amazing start.

He’s scary good offensively with the puck on his stick and honestly just as good without the puck in terms of holding puck in, or skating into holes with zone time, or joining the attack on rush.

He’s also been solid in the dzone.

I think he has future top 10 dmen in the league written all over him

 

[Dryish]

It would be more correct to pronounce the surnames Сергачёв and Фёдоров as Sergachöv and Födorov. In Russian there is a letter "ë", which after a consonant sounds something like "ö" in Swedish. And sometimes, to transliterate a surname from Cyrillic to Latin, the letter “ё” is transferred as “e”, and sometimes as “yo”. The fact is that the Russian language does not have a unified Latin alphabet, so the same word can be transliterated in different ways. But for convenience, you can imagine that there is "ö". Sergachöv, Födorov, Kovalöv, Sömin, etc.

Ehhh, as a speaker of both languages, as well as Finnish, I'll contest that. The ë is closer to "yo" than "ö", somewhere in between. It's difficult to transliterate accurately because few languages distinguish accurately enough (even the IPA is a hit and miss because the vowels are more of a continuum than distinct sounds, honestly), but it's definitely not an ö (IPA [ø]).

But yeah, on the mark otherwise. Fëdorov would definitely have sounded more like Fyodorof, that's how it's "pronounced" if you go by the native one.

 

[JAHV]

I just pronounce it "damn good hockey player."

He's been great, and I'll gladly admit I was misguided about wanting Zellweger to make the team over Mintyukov. Not that Zellweger has done anything to diminish his potential, but Mintyukov has been that good. I am also desperately trying not to get my expectations too high.

 

[GreatBear]

I will try to pronounce the way that he would like it pronounced here.

 

[FiveTacos]

You might listen to yourself pronouncing American names sometime.

I once saw a place in SF called Fuku Sushi. FYi, it rhymes with Dooku. Learned THAT the hard way.

 

[Rybread86]

I once saw a place in SF called Fuku Sushi. FYi, it rhymes with Dooku. Learned THAT the hard way.

I think I would prefer the way you pronounced it the first time

 

[FiveTacos]

I think I would prefer the way you pronounced it the first time

My wife did not agree.

 

[Rybread86]

So anyways, MINTY, should stay up the entire season. Hes a NHL regular at this point in my mind. He sees the ice well, can move, isn't afraid of contact and I feel like the NHL is where he going to progress the most in size, strength, speed and ability.

He is waiver exempt so if they get into a pinch, I could see where they might send him down but he would be the last of the 3 "prospects" on D that I would be looking at sending down.

 

[Arthuros]

So anyways, MINTY, should stay up the entire season. Hes a NHL regular at this point in my mind. He sees the ice well, can move, isn't afraid of contact and I feel like the NHL is where he going to progress the most in size, strength, speed and ability.

He is waiver exempt so if they get into a pinch, I could see where they might send him down but he would be the last of the 3 "prospects" on D that I would be looking at sending down.

It's pronounced "Minchy".

 

[Hockey Duckie]

So anyways, MINTY, should stay up the entire season. Hes a NHL regular at this point in my mind. He sees the ice well, can move, isn't afraid of contact and I feel like the NHL is where he going to progress the most in size, strength, speed and ability.

He is waiver exempt so if they get into a pinch, I could see where they might send him down but he would be the last of the 3 "prospects" on D that I would be looking at sending down.

I dunno if there was a thought that Minchy would be sent down. He beat out White, Hagg, and Vaaks for an NHL roster spot. The only young D that would be sent down is Luneau, who has been sitting on the bench for the first two games.

 

[Rybread86]

It's pronounced "Minchy".

Soft T sound or...

 

[Rybread86]

I dunno if there was a thought that Minchy would be sent down. He beat out White, Hagg, and Vaaks for an NHL roster spot. The only young D that would be sent down is Luneau, who has been sitting on the bench for the first two games.

Well given a lot of the discussions in pre-season it sounded like a lot of people werent sure. I agree though, Luneau is the one with the biggest question mark but he looked very confident last night. Question becomes if the Q is the best place for him.

I think the Vaaks experiment might be coming to an end. Which leaves Buch and Luneau as the 6/7 guys.

Im torn with Luneau. If hes not playing, then the NHL isnt the right place for him. Cant have an 18 year old only playing 40 games or something and sitting in the press box. Probably will be the best bet to have him go down, even if its not ideal.

 

[2faded]

Well, I guess after reading this thread there's no excuse to keep calling him Men-too-kov. But, I still don't know how to pronounce it.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Well, I guess after reading this thread there's no excuse to keep calling him Men-too-kov. But, I still don't know how to pronounce it.

You missed the youtube video of Pavel saying his own name. He says his full name in under a second, though. Use the left cursor key on your keyboard if you're on your PC.