Why do people have such a hard time pronouncing cycle brand

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Mr.Gib
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by Mr.Gib

prendrefeu wrote:
fromtrektocolnago wrote:there's always someone with a comment like that....


???
The point of this thread is to hopefully counter ignorance.
What do you mean "a comment like that" ?
You already displayed ignorance by stating an American brand with an "Italian" sounding name was Jewish (still doesn't make sense, religion is not a nationality), and that Cérvelo was named to try and sound Italian (again, this does not make any sense).

fromtrektocolnago wrote:In this case its an Ashkenazik sir name. no other way to say it. He thought he bought something made by Italian craftsman or purchased an Italian brand like Colnago. Perhaps I could have said brand of someone with Eastern European origin but that's way too obscure.
I guess he was confused because the name ended in a vowel.


Seriously? What are you talking about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotta
Serotta was an American bicycle builder located in Saratoga Springs, New York. Named after founder Ben Serotta, the company was founded in 1972.


That brand is American. A country full of immigrants and founded by immigrants! Do you really want to claim each brand/person's name by their family heritage and not their living/current nationality?


I think your missing the joke. Of course no one is suggesting that a bike brand is actually Jewish. It is the juxtaposition of the two identities that makes the comment and indeed the incident itself absolutely hilarious. Quite obviously "Italian" is positively and romantically associated with cycling, and Jewish - well, not at all. To believe you have an Italian bike and to be told by your buddy that you have a "Jewish" bike is damn funny. Of course Serrotta is an American brand, but to have said so would not have made a very good story.
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kkibbler
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by kkibbler

I always stumble on Guerciotti, Bottechia, Battaglin.

Good to know that industry folks get tripped up as well, tho. Specialized couldn't pronounce one of NeilPryde's frames and deployed their lawyers to sort things out.

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djm
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by djm

Funny thing is it seems as hard for people to spell these brand names correctly ;-)

Rodrego Hernandez
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by Rodrego Hernandez

Cervelo - cerebral and velo. According to Gerard Vroomen at least.

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Mockenrue
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by Mockenrue

Colnago. The number of times I've heard it pronounced as 'Conalgo', 'Colagno' or 'Col-nay-go' has surprised me, not to mention the predictive text goof of 'Collage'.

wingguy
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by wingguy

I can totally understand people mispronouncing words or names that come from other languages, even when they're pretty obvious. They've just never learned how to figure out foreign words.

It's the native english speakers who butcher normal, everyday english words that crack me up. The Jee-ont Deffie being the classic. Did anyone ever look at the cober of a Roald Dahl book and think "James and the Jee-ont Peach, sounds fun"?

miklm
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by miklm

Numerous people don't get "Porsche" correct, and it has 100x more brand recognition than any cycling brand.

Plus factor in the made up words like "Domane" that would be "domain" by English pronunciation rules but Trek (an American company) calls it "do-MAHN'-ee"

*shrug*

junchen
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by junchen

miklm wrote:Numerous people don't get "Porsche" correct, and it has 100x more brand recognition than any cycling brand.

Plus factor in the made up words like "Domane" that would be "domain" by English pronunciation rules but Trek (an American company) calls it "do-MAHN'-ee"

*shrug*

Me and my friends refer to them as Porky.. Prob solved.. Haha.

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Rick
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by Rick

You mean, it's not "Vate Veenies" ? :oops:

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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

yeah but some brands insist on specific pronounciation. today I was looking at some 24" bikes for my daughter and the guy at the shop kept pointing towards an Orbea, kept talking about it, but I only realized he meant that bike when I left the shop. I can't even recall how he pronounced that, (o-re-ha ?) but it was some crazy linguistic stuff
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Rondje
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by Rondje

It's just a common language barrier. People from foreign countries have a hard time pronouncing names and brands from other countries.
Try it with some names from people of Basque country, when I was there and asked for a route to the Jaizkibel it took the guy from the hotel a while to understand what I wanted.
English speaking people in general seem to have the hardest time with it. Usually when I have to find a stream for a race and I end up with an English where they pronounce allot of names incorrectly. Matthieu Van der Poel always get pronounced wrong, mostly end it up Matthew van der Pole, while Pool comes closer in correctly pronouncing it.

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Leviathan
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by Leviathan

it is indeed just language. And Id suggest those who speak a few languages come to realise pronunciation of some artificially created Eurobrand name really doesn't matter a flying nique.
Chorus in Spanish is pronounced to rhyme with Cheese, by the way.

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DMF
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by DMF

I once, attending a garden party with part friends, part strangers had the opposite experience... So there I was, chatting about anything but cycling... And this stranger, apparently the spouse of a friend of my better halve, a total hipster in every sense of the word, has somehow found out that I'm a cyclist... He is not, he is a hipster with a fixie. So he chats me up about cycling, I amuse him with a bit of attention, trying to grab me into his sphere, he makes a strong point out of using a faked Italian pronunciation to name Chino Chinelli in about every third sentence... He ofcourse riding a bullhorn Cinelli fixie.

Mid-sentence changing your accent from Swedish to Italian for a couple of words, every third sentence or so, can end up a bit daft ;)

In the workshop we also do the deliberate mis-pronunciation bit... In Swedish DuraAce becomes DyraAce, "dyra" is the Swedish word for Expensive. :)

mike
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by mike

shimano "dura a-chee" as pronounced by a mechanic at Performance Bike.

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