He began playing basketball at the age of nine. His first name, Giannis, is a typical Greek name that is pronounced as YAHN-nees, with emphasis on the "n"s, which acquire an elongated sound. Both guys have been amazing, in very different cir.. Giannis Antetokounmpo reacted to a reported online, saying he would not pay to read his piece on him back for a game back in December. ", Giannis unsure of 'Greek Freak' roots but loves it, NBA Power Rankings: Kevin Durant's return could rock the West, V. Bryant settles crash photos suit for $28.85M, Sources: Lakers to reassess LeBron in 2 weeks, Irving: Need to scale back self-imposed pressure, Jokic sixth player in 100 career triple-double club, Driven Giannis 'OK' if people take him for granted, Durant to debut for Suns on Wed. vs. Hornets, Pels say injured Zion progressing, set for imaging, What NBA Finals runs from LeBron, Giannis can teach Jayson Tatum, Meet the man scouring Nigeria for the next generation of NBA and NFL talent, Roundtable: Early takeaways from Kyrie Irving joining Luka Doncic in Dallas, Hacking of Giannis' accounts being investigated. Unfortunately, this browser does not support voice recording. When one of the leagues top talents is denied a courteous introduction, it doesnt feel like theres much hope for the rest of us. Giannis was born in Athens, Greece, to Nigerian parents, Charles and Veronica, who had emigrated to Greece to find work.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'stuffsure_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_6',182,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-stuffsure_com-large-leaderboard-2-0'); Giannis first name is pronounced yah-NEEs. from the second division of Greek basketball with a name that most Americans didn't know how to pronounce . When Jews started encountering the Greek language in Judea-Palestine during the Hellenistic period (4th c. BCE1st c. BCE), they would sometimes "Greek-ify" their names when they interacted with Greeks. February 21, 2023. We explain why the change occurred. Latest on Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo including news, stats, videos, highlights and more on ESPN Refusing to do so isnt cutesy or harmless; it tells those of us with ethnic names that were not worth your effort. In the world of words and the diversity of accents and local dialects, some words can be extremely hard to pronounce.Giannis Sina Ougko Antetokounmpo is a Greek professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. Step 1: Giannis Is A Name Of Greek Origin. Manage Settings Nigeria is home to many ethnic groups and languages, including the Yoruba people and language. In a 2013 interview, Giannis revealed that he hadn't started playing basketball until 2008, five years prior. Look no further than here for a few examples of some pronunciations of the name: While Giannis tends to be quite gracious about mispronunciations of his name, the Finals MVP and his heritage are worthy of the respect shown by putting in a little effort to learn about his name. We recommend you to try Safari. So dominant that on an island with the unstoppable force that is the Bucks MVP, Royce O'Neale did what the Nets should have done all game long. The way to pronounce Giannis Antetokounmpo is pretty simple, actually. Record the pronunciation of this word in your own voice and play it to listen to how you have pronounced it. His last name is a little more complicated. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Although Giannis was born in Athens, Greece, he is of Nigerian descent. First, the Greek letter , which originally sounded like "ey" in English hey (but without the "y"), came to be pronounced like "ee" as in English see. Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to need a minute. Giannis Antetokounmpo has already been on the radar of NBA fans for several years, thanks to his crazy highlights and catchy nickname, The Greek Freak. His last name is thus Yoruba and means 'the crown came from over the sea'. He was born on December 6, 1994, in Athens, Greece making him 28 years old as of 2022. What does that mean? The sad reality is that even fame doesnt guarantee respect. Ruocco does concedethat his pronunciation is not perfect. When you look at it like that, the Greek spelling is actually a direct transliteration of the Yoruba name "adetokunbo" (antetokounmpo) according to normal Greek spelling conventions. One name strikes fear in the heart of announcers. But more significantly for us, it also tended to make the following consonant voiced instead of voiceless. Even within Greek, note that the sequence exhibits some variation, it can be pronounced as "nd" (in slower speech or in certain contexts or among certain speakers) or even as a simple "d" (in certain contexts, among certain speakers, etc.). Hardly a perfect solution, since typically represents and entirely different sound in English. - 8:16 PM Dave Early . Those of us with long ethnic names get it. Historical Greek Phonology & the Greek Freak - YouTube In this video, we try to clear up some of the confusion regarding the. But that took time, and he leaned on veteran players to help him during the process. In the middle of the stars breakout season a few years later, Fox Sports Wisconsin did a similar experiment with Bucks fans, who did only marginally better. Register It also allows fans to more easily communicate with him and follow his career. Comments about the name Giannis: Personal experiences with the name Giannis. Forcing the Greek Freak to hoist free throw after free throw may have offered an alternative reality from what the Nets experienced in their 118-104 loss to the . Learn GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO pronunciation with video Popular collections Italian Giannis may be an All-Star captain, but @SHAQ still can't pronounce his name The NBA All-Star Draft is coming up next at 7pm ET on @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/LE73n1KDp7. Send me updates about Slate special offers. "I have asked [Antetokounmpo]," said Ruocco. Some use a more Greek pronunciation and some try to approximate a more foreign sounding name through the spelling. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2013 NBA Draft. Make sure youre staying informed and up-to-date on the latest information and news on interpreting, translation, linguistics and everything in between. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The same thing happened with the name Giannis. We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. "I have complete confidence that if there's a way for us to return to basketball, return to play, in a healthy and safe manner, for our players and for the public and people that would be involved, that our league will figure out how to do it," Horst said. Over time, eventually the sequence could be used to represent the sound "d" if it was needed in spelling a foreign word and the sequence could be used to represent the sound "b" if it was needed in spelling a foreign word. But they eventually found their way onto a basketball court. The Alphabet Man himself: Giannis Antetokounmpo. Well, to answer that question, we need to turn to the second phenomenon, namely, the weakening of nasal consonants. So it stuck by me, I love it and it's a cool nickname.". Shortly after being crowned the NBAs Most Valuable Player f.. All fair game. The indifference to getting Antetokounmpos name rightthe fact that it remains an issue six years into his hugely successful careerfeels fundamentally at odds with the image the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver have sought to project of late, one thats global, progressive, inclusive, and enlightened. While they may have felt ESPN's Ryan Ruocco was saying it wrong during the playoffs, he was much closer than most. He is 6 feet 11 inches tall, and his nickname is the Greek Freak. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a clear favorite to win MVP this season, but should he also pick up Defensive Player of the Year honors? Florida Court Approved Interpreter. His name is pronounced YAH-nis ah-deh-toh-KOON-poh. Giannis Antetokounmpo explains how to pronounce his last name | ESPN ESPN 8.9M subscribers Subscribe 19K Share 1.7M views 5 years ago Giannis Antetokounmpo goes through the different ways. Keep up. We find a similar situation with the first syllable of Antetokounmpo. The name of the reigning MVP is a veritable minefield for English-speaking NBA fans seeking to master the original language pronunciation. In Greek of today, for example, the nasal "n" would have a tendency to weaken or fall out entirely before the final stop sound. Gianni, the Italian form of Johnny, has gotten popular in the US, and there's a good chance Giannis will be next, thanks to rising star basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is Greek. He is currently playing for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Subscribe to learn and pronounce a new word each day! Before "Giannis" became a household name, those who couldn't pronounce his last name often called the NBA's reigning MVP the "Greek Freak," because of his rare, freakish athletic ability and ballhandling skills for someone 6-foot-11. So what happened when this name was written with Greek letters after his parents migrated to Greece from Lagos? Chicago Bulls color commentator Stacey King tried and failed spectacularly with the five syllables, ending up with something to the effect of Anagarunbo. Marv Alberts no less than a dozen attempts at the 2017 All-Star Game ranged from Anchootekembo to Antetokooko. Kevin Hart, in charge of introductions at last years All-Star Game, didnt even bother to try. The team is nursing the NBA's best record (53-12), and the Greek Freak is itching to return to the court. Learn more here. But following Giannis's historic performance in the NBA Finals, I thought that this would be a timely post. In the past year, teams have played games in China, London, and Mexico City, with two preseason games in Mumbai planned for October. on Giannis Antetokounmpo: Pronouncing the MVP, The Measure of a Man Classifiers & Haitian Creole, Our Florida Neighborhood Haitian Communities on the Rise, Access Interpreting Language and Linguistics Blog, What is a Deposition? Given that it is a foreign name, some of this variation can also even be present among Greek speakers. It is of course common for names to have various acceptable pronunciations in different cultural contexts. Giannis Antetokounmpo joins Malika Andrews on NBA Today to . You have earned {{app.voicePoint}} points. Second, the "o" near the beginning of the name dropped out. You've got the pronunciation of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO right. Required fields are marked *. Some readers on our website were upset some time ago by the change in the record of the Greek basketball player Janis Andetokounmpo, who was written as Giannis Antetokounmpo years ago. Word of the day - in your inbox every day, 2023 HowToPronounce. How do you pronounce Giannis Antetokounmpo's last name? Now to the main event. Giannis Antetokounmpos nickname is a play on his last name. We can see this illustrated in English with the words rag and rage. Taking the time to learn a persons name is a bare-minimum show of respect for their family, faith, and identity. Its really that simple. As a child, he and his family struggled financially. "Joker," the Greek Freak read off a teleprompter, "how are you going to make it through . The n is pronounced like the n in songstep. Given that there are so many ways to get his name right, its striking that so many have made so little effort to do so. Before "Giannis" became a household name, those who couldn't pronounce his last name often called the NBA's reigning MVP the "Greek Freak," because of his rare, freakish athletic ability and ballhandling skills for someone 6-foot-11. He can handle the ball, shoot from anywhere on the court, and drive to the basket with ease. Although Greek gamma originally sounded like English "g", it started to get a bit rumblyor in linguistic terms "fricative"during the Hellenistic period. So the "d" in "ade" was written with an (nt) in Greek ( = ante) and the "b" in "kunbo" was written with an (mp) in Greek ( = kounmpo). as well as other partner offers and accept our. We rarely get to see NBA players outside of arenas during the season, but the two-time MVP took the time to appear on The Daily Show on Monday night, with comedian Hasan Minhaj filling in as guest . Antetokounmpo admits there are a few acceptable ways to say his last name, the result of inexact transliteration from the Yoruba version ( ah-det-oh-KOON-boh) to Greek (where it became. Its further complicated by the fact that many English speakers are familiar with the nearly identical Italian name, Gianni. It is no surprise that a name like Giannis Antetokounmpo would be difficult to pronounce by many commentators in the sports world. Record the pronunciation of this word in your own voice and play it to listen to how you have pronounced it. "The most important thing is you cannot lose yourself in it. 7 Steps to Pronounce Giannis Antetokounmpo. And we indeed find an ancient inscription in which the word is instead spelled as (4th c. BCE Asia Minor). How To Say Giannis Antetokounmpo First Name. Well, thanks to the weakening of the nasal consonants, there were now two-letter sequences that could (at least theoretically) be used to represent the stop sounds. Check out these Famous cuisines around the World, Phonetic spelling of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO, Examples of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO in a sentence. More on ESPN.com: http://www.espn.com He himself switches between them across media appearances. antetokounmpo "the king/crown/royalty from across the seas" giannis God is gracious, Five NBA things I like and don't like, including the LeBron James-Giannis Antetokounmpo MVP 'narrative', NBA Rumors: Giannis Antetokounmpo Irked With Pay To Preview Article, Giannis Antetokounmpo loses it after discovering girlfriend was a Lakers fan, Giannis Antetokounmpo's Rumored Nike Zoom Freak 2 Revealed, Giannis Antetokounmpo Reveals Who Annoys Him The Most, Phonetic spelling of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO, Word of the day - in your inbox every day, 2023 HowToPronounce. Giannis became an NBA. So, there you have it. The last part, AN-teh-toh-KOON-poh, is pronounced a bit like the English word cone. However, the Greek soft G (represented as [] in IPA) is not quite the same as the English soft G (represented as [d]). He is 6 feet 11 inches tall and his nationality is Greek. Theres so much to find remarkable about the Milwaukee Bucks transcendent 24-year-old power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo: his impossibly long stride; his invincibility in transition; the fact that even as a leading MVP candidate and three-time All-Star, hes only just entering his prime. And once someone has taken the time to teach you their name (or in Giannis case, offered multiple correct options), dont ignore them or flat-out refuse to try. In its earliest days, the Greek letters were pronounced more or less just like the English letters b g d. However, in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, these sounds started to become "fricativized". You can contribute this audio pronunciation of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO to HowToPronounce dictionary. And, as we will see in a moment, the former MVP's first name is pronounced as something like yah-nees. No, Antetokounmpo told him with a weary smile, it wasnt right. "Like, there's so many things that you're going to have in front of you that you've got to do, but you've just got to be able to balance your personal life with the Greek Freak life. Can you pronounce this word better or pronounce in different accent or variation ? Seems like your pronunciation of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO is not correct. He began playing organized basketball when he was just 12 years old. Sure, sometimes letters are silent, or certain consonant combinations are tricky. Rate the pronunciation difficulty of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO. "I have also gotten lessons from people who speak his [Yoruba] language.". Of course, we can always go to the source himself at the 0:53 mark of this video. He notesthat native Yorubaspeakers can say the first part of the last name faster and that whennative English speakerssay it at the same speed, it starts to sound "inauthentic.". Can you pronounce Giannis last name? Kenny Smith dared his Inside the NBA co-host Shaquille ONeal last week, during TNTs coverage of the 2019 All-Star Game draft. Most people who regularly interact with speakers of languages other than their own are well-aware that their name will change form. She defended herself by explaining that when she made an effort to get pronunciations right, she did so out of respect for the countries and athletes she was covering. Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the best basketball players in the world. Because many couldn't pronounce the young budding star's last name (the Bucks had to provide a phonetic spelling of it on draft night), Antetokounmpo quickly became the "Greek Freak." But with all the emphasis on his Greek origins, it was quickly lost that Antetokounmpo wasn't ethnically Greek but the son of Nigerians. Giannis himself seems to be flexible in this respect when describing how to pronounce his name: Although it is undoubtedly the last name that gives people most trouble, the first name also deserves a few comments. Antetokounmpo, born to Nigerian immigrants in Athens, is presumably used to this by now. Now, linguistically, this just explains the history and the spelling. Original language pronunciation this just explains the how to pronounce giannis antetokounmpo in greek and the Greek Freak 11 inches tall and... Word better or pronounce in different cultural contexts team is nursing the NBA co-host Shaquille ONeal last week during. On December 6, 1994, in charge of introductions at last years All-Star,. Of voiceless how to pronounce giannis antetokounmpo in greek to know how to pronounce translation, linguistics and everything in between crown. 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