Lisicki vs Lisitski - Wozniacki vs Wozniatski
Help! I am confused as what is the correct way of pronouncing the names of two WTA tour players: Sabine Lisicki and Caroline Wozniacki. As you may already have read, Sabine Lisicki of Germany beat Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-2, 6-4 to win the Family Circle Cup and her first tour title on Sunday. Congratulations to Sabine! However, there is one thing that I keeps annoying me: what is the right way of pronouncing their last names. Both of them are of Polish origin, obviously, and all the Russian media pronounce their last names the way they would be pronounced in Polish. That is as LISITSKI. I remember a commentator at the tournament in Luxembourg pronouncing Wozniacki’s names as WOZNIATSKI. The WTA site officially lists the pronunciation of Sabine’s name as “za-BEE-nuh LEE-zi-kee.” Now, Russians usually tend to butcher foreign names, however, since the Polish language is very close to Russian, they deffinetely know how to read the Polish last names. But I read somewhere that Sabine herself prefers her name pronounced as Lisicki. I know, transliteration can be confusing. Hopefully, if these young players continue playing well, one standardized solution will be reached:-)
For polish and many slavic nations is sound funny and without key meaning, where meaning belonging to family, i.e. LISICKY –> from famyly of LISIC. however we have to respect their choices. In US many such names holders choose to become rather Indian then Polish -:).
Some of them don’t have knowledge about, some don’t wont to make complications for their coworkers, etc..
What I have also noticed, many commentators often misplace the accent, especially when it comes pronouncing Eastern European names and surnames. When you put the accent on a wrong syllable, sometimes the names can sound completely wrong to native speakers:-)
Hello. Umm i dont know about sabine, but caroline’s name is woniatski not wozniaki
At uni I had two students named Lewicki
They pronounced it Lewitski.
The great composer Penderecki is pronounced
Penderefski.
These are all names of Polish origin and the cki
ending is pronounced in this way
The __Polish_ pronounciations are:
Lee-shee-tskee , and, Vozi-nya-tskee.
(BTW: Lisicki would be equivalent to Fox or Foxworthy [lis=fox], and Wozniacki - Carter [woznica=carter].
However, since Poles tend to be proud people, and thus usually unwilling to change the spelling of their names in order to accomodate their adopted countries(e.g. : Lisittzky or Wosniatzky) - the local pronounciations usually depend on how the specific language, be it German, Danish or English or French(don’t forget Alexandra Wozniak of Canada) - decides to pronounce the names in question.
Caroline Wozniacki is born and raised in Denmark and has adapted the pronunciation of her name.
Transscribed into English, it would be something like (capitalization showing how it is stressed):
COWleaner VosneeAcky
For international consumption, she herself pronounces Caroline like the English do.
They both pronounce their last names just with [ki], not with [tski]. Just watch the bagcheck videos on Youtube where they say their own names.
Hey nuutzer thanks for that, been driving me nuts with commentators calling her Sabina Lisitski, nice to find out even she pronounces it Sabine Lisicki
The Russian tennis commentators continue pronouncing their last names with “tski.” Argh….!!!